"  Margery  had  kindled  a  cheery  little  wood  fire  on  the  library  hearth,  and 
coaxed  Muriel  into  a  deep  reclining-ehair  in  front  of  it."        P   24. 


WAYS    AND    MEANS. 


BV 

MARGARET    VANDEGRIFT. 


AUTHOH      OF      "  DORIS      AND      THEODORA,"      "  THE      QUEEN'S 
BODY-GUARD,"      ETC.,     ETC. 


PHILADELPHIA 
HENRY  T.  COAXES  &  CO. 


Copyright,  1 886, 

BY 

PORTER  &  COATES. 


CONTENTS. 


I.  ALONE, i 

II.  SEEKING  A  CLUE, 26 

III.  FINDING, 46 

IV.  A  MORAL 73 

V.  TAKING  IT  PATIENTLY, 94 

VI.  MAKING  FRIENDS,       ......  113 

VII.  A  PEACEFUL  VICTORY, 132 

VIII.  SOUNDING  THE  DEPTHS, 150 

IX.  ENLISTING 176 

X.  A  SMALL  BEGINNING,         .....  195 

XI.  A  NEW  OPPORTUNITY 213 

XII.  THE  NEXT  STEP 233 

XIII.  DISCOURAGEMENT, 250 

XIV.  THE  WAY  OPENS 268 

XV.  ADVICE — ASKED  AND  UNASKED 287 

XVI.  UNSATISFACTORY, 305 

XVII.  AND  LAST, 323 


WAYS    AND   MEANS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ALONE. 

"  Some  lose  not  only  joy,  but  memory 

Of  how  it  felt  ;  not  love  that  was  so  dear 
Lose  only,  but  the  steadfast  certainty 

That  once  they  had  it.     Doubt  comes  on, 

then  fear, 
And  after  that,  despondency." 

— JEAN  INGELOW. 

IT  was  the  evening  of  one  of  those  beguiling  February 
days  which  convince  us  that  this  year,  at  least,  we  are 
going  to  have  an  early  spring.  Two  days  of  mild  air  and 
warm  sunshine  had  swelled  the  buds  on  the  ever-ready 
maples  almost  to  bursting,  had  turned  the  bare  willow- 
branches  a  golden  yellow,  and  conjured  up  patches  of 
astonishingly  green  grass.  The  grounds  about  a  handsome, 
dignified-looking  house  in  one  of  the  charming  suburbs  of 
Boston  were  always  in  spotless,  or  rather  flawless  order,  and 
now  to  this  was  added  an  indefinable  aspect  of  glad  ex- 
pectancy, which  neutralized  the  slight  primness  of  their 
arrangement.  The  house  was  of  dark-gray  stone,  with  a 
high-pillared,  square  porch  over  the  wide  front  door  ;  a  bay 
window,  two  stories  high,  on  either  side  of  the  porch,  and 
that  modern  abomination,  a  "  French  roof,"  doing  all  it 
could  to  dwarf  the  appearance  of  a  large  house.  But,  fortu- 


4  W A  YS  AND  MEANS. 

nately,  a  little  slope  had  been  allowed  this  particular  French 
roof,  so  that  it  did  not  glower  over  the  eaves  as  if  about  to 
fall  upon  the  first  person  daring  enough  to  ring  the  bell, 
and  three  old-fashioned  dormer  windows  did  much  to  make 
it  look  easy  and  comfortable.  Windows  to  the  floor  opened 
from  the  third  story  upon  the  roofs  of  the  bay-windows,  and 
a  light  iron  railing  rose  above  the  stone  coping  sufficiently 
high  to  make  these  attractive  little  balconies  reasonably  i;afe 
for  any  one  but  die  adventurous  small  boy,  and  it  was  many 
a  long  year  since  one  of  his  tribe  had  been  vouchsafed 
opportunities  of  adventure  either  within  or  immediately 
without  those  gray  walls. 

The  sun  had  set,  but  a  golden  radiance,  unbroken  by  the 
smallest  cloud,  still  lingered  in  the  west,  so  that  the  sickle 
of  a  very  young  moon  shone  pale,  and  almost  invisible,  by 
contrast,  and  the  larger  stars  came  out  slowly,  and  with 
apparent  reluctance. 

Inside  the  house  was  a  strange  stillness — strange,  in  view 
of  the  fact  that  all  the  shutters  were  open,  and  that  a  few  of 
the  rooms  showed  signs  of  very  recent  occupation.  Only  a 
few.  The  majority,  although  very  fully  furnished,  and 
arranged  as  if  an  occupant  were  momentarily  expected,  were 
too  evidently  "  spare  rooms."  The  wide  front  of  the  house, 
ample  as  it  was,  gave  no  idea  of  the  number  and  size  of  the 
rooms  within  it.  Very  deep  double  back- buildings,  only 
one  story  lower  than  the  front  part,  afforded  half  the  num- 
ber of  rooms  contained  in  the  four-storied  square,  which 
showed  from  the  front  gate.  As  the  house  faced  west,  one 
side  of  this  back  building  had  a  southern  exposure,  and 
here  were  by  far  the  most  pleasant  rooms,  if  the  least  stately. 
1A  small  house,  connected  with  the  large  one  by  a  covered 
passage-way,  had  been  built  for  the  sleeping  accommoda- 
tion of  the  servants,  and  for  the  indispensable  trunk-and- 
lumber  rooms,  so  that  every  part  of  the  mansion  was 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  5 

arranged  as  if  for  occupation  by  the  owner  and  his  family. 
This  arrangement  had  been  one  of  the  many  peculiarities 
which  had  marked,  and  too  often  marred,  the  life  of  the 
recent  owner,  Anthony  Hardcastle.  He  had  inherited  the 
house,  together  with  an  ample  fortune,  when  he  was  no 
longer  a  young  man,  and  had  married,  soon  after  entering 
upon  his  inheritance,  the  woman  who,  for  fifteen  years,  had 
been  patiently  waiting  until  he  should  consider  himself  able 
to  support  a  wife.  Whether  or  not  he  would  ever  have  so 
considered  himself,  but  for  this  unlooked-for  stroke  of  good 
fortune,  many  people  doubted.  His  proposal  to  Janet  Gor- 
don had  been  the  one  unguarded  and  unforseen  action  of 
his  life,  and  had  scarcely  been  made  when  his  native  caution 
re-asserted  itself,  and  he  offered  to  release  her,  upon  the 
score  of  his  poverty,  and  the  length  of  the  time  which  must, 
in  all  probability,  elapse  before  he  could  marry  her ;  but 
she,  young,  unsuspicious,  and  unhappily  circumstanced, 
had  considered  this  only  a  proof  of  his  generosity  and 
nobility,  and  had  proudly  declared  that  she  would  wait  for 
him,  if  need  be,  until  death,  instead  of  marriage,  put  an  end 
to  the  waiting.  She  had  come  to  doubt,  before  her  mar- 
riage, the  wisdom  of  this  decision,  yet  had  not  had  the 
courage  to  break  her  engagement,  and  so  had  drifted  on, 
from  year  to  year,  a  poorly-paid,  because  not  very  efficient 
teacher,  waiting,  rather  hopelessly,  as  years  went  by,  for 
her  release  from  a  distasteful  servitude.  It  came  at  last, 
when  she  was  nearly  forty  years  old,  and  she  counted  upon 
spending  the  rest  of  her  life  in  tranquil  contentment ;  all 
romantic  ideas  of  happiness  had  long  since  vanished.  But, 
if  more  actual  sermons  on  the  subject  were  needed,  here 
was  one  more  upon  "  the  vanity  of  human  wishes."  The 
old  affection  between  Anthony  Hardcastle  and  his  wife 
revived  into  almost  youthful  fervor,  before  the  birth  of  their 
child  ;  one  thing  alone  filled  Janet  with  grave  apprehension  ; 


0  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

her  husband  spoke  always,  and  with  serene  confidence,  of 
"  the  boy  ; "  and  when  a  little  wailing  baby-girl  was  at  last 
laid  in  his  arms  by  the  grave-faced  nurse,  the  look  upon  his 
face  was  one  never  to  be  forgotten  by  his  sorrowful  wife. 
It  was  just  before  the  birth  of  this  poor  little  unwelcome 
daughter,  that  the  house  had  been  remodeled  to  suit  the 
fancy  of  the  new  owner,  and  in  every  change  he  had  seme 
reference  to  the  future  life  and  prospects  of  "the  boy." 

He  was  never  actively  unkind  to  his  patient  and  spiritless 
wife,  and  as  time  went  on  he  provided  without  remon- 
strance or  hesitation  for  the  wants  and  then  for  the  wishes 
of  his  only  child,  but  he  saw  her  as  little  as  was  at  all  pos- 
sible without  exciting  remark  from  servants  and  outsiders, 
and  was  greatly  relieved  when  at  an  early  age  she  made  a 
perfectly  suitable  and  proper  marriage.  Then,  once  more, 
his  hope  of  an  heir  revived  and  once  more  crushing  dis- 
appointment extinguished  that  hope.  His  daughter,  who 
from  a  sickly  child  had  grown  into  a  delicate  and  fragile 
woman,  returned  to  her  home  a  widow,  with  a  little  daughter 
of  her  own  two  years  after  her  marriage,  and  when  the  little 
Muriel  was  five  years  old,  her  mother's  long  expected  death 
left  her  solely  to  the  care  of  her  grandparents.  And  then 
occurred  a  curious  thing.  "  Old  Mr.  Hardcastle,"  as  every 
one  called  him  by  this  time,  who  had,  as  nearly  as  might  be 
ignored  his  daughter  and  her  child,  began  suddenly  to 
notice  Muriel.  Stuart  Douglas,  her  father,  had  been  a 
handsome  man,  in  robust  health  up  to  the  time  of  his  sud- 
den death,  and  she  seemed  to  have  inherited  his  strength 
and  activity,  instead  of  the  frail  constitution  of  her  mother. 
The  heavy,  silent  atmosphere  of  the  house  had  apparently 
no  effect  upon  her,  and  as  she  grew  larger  her  grandmother 
trembled  day  by  day  at  her  increasing  noisiness  and  general 
troublesomeness,  dreading  the  sharp,  cold  reproof  upon  this 
subject,  which  fell  to  her  lot  upon  too  many  others.  Her 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  7 

terror  culminated  upon  the  evening  when  Muriel,  escaping 
suddenly  from  the  hands  of  Margery,  her  Scotch  nurse, 
made  a  successful  dash  for  the  door  which  separated  the 
back  building  from  the  front  part  of  the  house,  and  before 
her  breathless  pursuers  could  lay  hands  upon  her,  had 
"  ridden  "  down  the  massive  mahogany  rail  of  the  balusters, 
and  landed,  a  laughing,  screaming  heap  of  red  flannel  and 
bright  curls  on  the  thick  fur  rug  which,  most  fortunately, 
lay  at  the  foot  of  the  stairs  ;  for,  to  add  to  her  grand- 
mother's horror,  she  was  simply,  if  warmly,  clad  in  her  flan- 
nel night-gown  when  she  made  her  escape.  The  slamming 
of  the  entry  door  had  brought  Mr.  Hardcastle  from  his  li- 
brary, and  by  the  time  that  his  wife  and  Margery  had  reached 
the  foot  of  the  stairs,  he  stood  there  regarding  the  culprit, 
for  the  first  time  in  her  short  life  with  actual  interest.  Some 
long-silent  chord  of  fun  and  adventure  in  his  disappointed, 
contracted  heart  was  suddenly  touched,  and  he  with  dif- 
ficulty repressed  the  laughter  which,  for  the  first  time  in 
many  years,  assailed  him. 

"  Were  you  trying  to  break  your  neck,  child? "  he  asked, 
grimly,  at  the  same  time  raising  her  from  the  rug  and  hold- 
ing her  cautiously  in  his  arms. 

"  No,  grandpa,  I  was  only  trying  to  ride,"  answered  the 
small  sinner,  audaciously,  "  and  my  horse  was  too  slippery. 
And  I'm  Muriel ;  I'm  not  '  child  ! ' ' 

The  twinkle  in  Mr.  Hardcastle's  eyes  made  her  perfectly 
fearless,  and  she  did  not  see  the  frantic  signs  made  to  her 
by  her  grandmother  and  Margery. 

"  Very  well,  I'll  try  to  remember,"  he  said,  in  the  same 
grim  tones,  but  he  drew  her  closer,  and  to  the  infinite  as- 
tonishment of  the  two  anxious  spectators,  carried  her  into 
the  library  and  closed  the  door.  At  the  end  of  an  hour 
he  rang  the  bell,  demanded  Margery's  presence,  and  handed 
her  charge  back  to  her  with  the  remark  : 


8  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

"  You  were  not  to  blame,  possibly,  upon  this  occasion, 
but  you  can  take  it  as  a  warning  to  be  more  careful  of  Miss 
Douglas  in  future  !  "  An  indignant  rejoinder  rose  to  the 
lips  of  the  sorely-tried  nurse,  but  she  wisely  repressed  it, 
courtesied  meekly  and  haled  "  Miss  Douglas "  off  to  her 
bed. 

The  child  was  glowing  and  sparkling  with  excitement, 
the  cause  of  which  she  poured  forth  as  Margery,  mindful  of 
bare  feet  and  possible  croup,  carried  her,  heavy  as  she  was, 
up  the  broad  stair-case  down  which  she  had  come  with 
such  startling  suddenness  and  unexpected  results  an  hour 
before. 

"  I'm  never  to  do  it  again,  Margery.  I  promised  I 
wouldn't,  honor  bright!  And  I  don't  really  want  to — it 
wasn't  as  much  fun  as  I  thought  it  would  be,  because  it 
didn't  last  a  second,  and  oh,  what  do  you  think  ?  Because 
I  promised,  I'm  to  have  the  biggest,  highest  rocking-horse 
grandpa  can  find,  and  then,  if  I'm  very  good,  next  summer 
I  am  to  have  a  real,  real  little  pony,  all. my  own!  Oh, 
Margery  ! " 

"You  needn't  choke  me,  Miss  Muriel,"  said  Margery, 
crossly  ;  "  I'd  rather  you'd  say  you  were  sorry  for  the  fright 
you  gave  you  grandmamma  and  me,  than  all  the  hugging 
you  can  give  me." 

"  Well,  then,  I  am  sorry,  as  sorry  as  I  can  be,  when  I'm 
so  glad,  Margery,  dear  !  "  and  with  this  somewhat  mixed 
apology,  Margery  was  fain  to  content  herself.  She  had 
nursed  Muriel's  mother  nearly  thirty  years  ago,  and  had 
lived  in  the  house  ever  since,  as  maid  and  seamstress  to 
Mrs.  Hardcastle,  until  Mrs.  Douglas  returned  ;  then  once 
more  as  nurse,  to  Muriel,  this  time.  She  had  come  of  a 
very  respectable  and  fairly  educated  Scotch  family,  and, 
being  both  quick  and  observant,  had  long  since  lost  all 
marked  peculiarities  of  speech ;  a  very  sweet  voice  and 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  9 

pleasant  accent  she  would  never  lose.  Her  faithful  service 
had  been  one  of  the  few  bright  threads  in  the  woof  of  Mrs. 
Hardcastle's  colorless  life,  and  her  devotion  to  Muriel  knew 
no  bounds.  Janet  Gordon,  herself,  was  of  not  very  remote 
Scotch  ancestry,  and  this  made  the  affection  between  mis- 
tress and  maid  all  the  warmer. 

From  the  day  of  Muriel's  startling  "  ride,"  a  curious 
friendship  sprang  up  between  the  child  and  her  grand- 
father ;  the  very  things  which  annoyed  and  distressed  Mrs. 
Hardcastle — her  fearless  courage,  her  irrepressible  love  of 
fun,  her  readiness  to  be  amused  and  led  into  all  sorts  of 
pranks,  seemed  to  awaken  the  formal,  silent  old  man  to  a 
new  life,  while,  at  the  same  time,  his  lasting  regret  that  she 
was  a  girl  held  him  back  from  any  thing  like  tenderness  ; 
and  Muriel,  quick,  as  all  children  are,  to  discern  the  lack  of 
it,  accepted  him  as  a  comrade,  a  desirable  friend,  later,  as 
a  teacher  and  adviser,  for  he  had  read  and  thought  much  ; 
but  he  never  reached  the  inner  shrine  of  that  warm  little 
heart,  nor  did  her  grandmother.  Long  repression  had  pro- 
duced fretfulness,  and  the  poor  lady  would  have  been  much 
shocked,  could  she  have  known  how  Muriel,  as  the  only 
person  really  and  wholly  in  her  power,  was  selected  as  the 
victim  of  this  fretfulness.  Only  a  very  bright  and  sunny 
temperament  could  have  withstood,  as  Muriel's  withstood, 
the  daily  captious  fault-finding  about  trifles,  and  complaint 
about  nearly  every  thing  which  it  fell  to  her  lot  to  hear. 
Her  mother  had  been  a  very  quiet,  gentle  woman,  speak- 
ing little,  and  shrinking  from  all  attempts  to  discipline  her 
only  child;  the  memory  of  her  own  unhappy  childhood  was 
all  too  fresh,  and  she  resolved  that,  if  she  might  not  posi- 
tively contribute  to  Muriel's  happiness,  she  would  at  least 
do  so  negatively.  So  it  was  no  wonder  that  Muriel,  as  time 
went  on,  helping  her  fading  memories  with  a  portrait  of  her 
young  mother's  delicately-sweet  face,  enshrined  that  mother 


10  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

in  the  most  sacred  corner  of  her  heart,  and  magnified  her 
own  loss  as  she  contrasted  the  dead  mother  with  the  living 
grandmother.  Not  that  she  in  the  least  doubted  the  latter's 
affection  for  her  ;  she  only  grieved  that  it  manifested  itself 
in  so  many  painful  and  distressing  ways.  The  dull  still- 
ness of  the  great  house,  the  monotony  of  her  daily  life, 
could  not  fail  to  crush  out  much  of  the  overflowing  spirit 
of  her  childhood.  Perhaps,  had  she  •  been  sent  early  to 
school,  and  allowed  to  form  acquaintance  and  friendship 
with  children  of  her  own  age,  she  might  have  held  her  own 
in  this  respect ;  but  her  grandmother,  having  seen  school- 
life  on  its  seamy  side,  spoke  her  views  upon  this  subject 
more  positively  than  she  usually  dared  to  utter  them  upon 
any  thing,  and  Mr.  Hardcastle  did  not  care  enough  about 
the  matter  to  resist  her  ;  so  every  day,  from  her  eighth 
birthday  to  her  fifteenth,  Muriel  studied,  and  recited,  and 
practiced,  quite  alone,  under  the  care  of  a  highly  recom- 
mended and  nearly  faultless  governess.  Then  she  was 
allowed  to  go  for  three  years  to  a  "  finishing  school,"  and 
here,  it  seemed  to  her,  in  the  mimic  world  of  school-room, 
play-ground,  parlor  and  dormitory,  her  real  life  began. 
By  this  time,  Mrs.  Hardcastle  considered,  her  mind  and 
"  manner  "  were  sufficiently  formed  to  resist  vulgarizing 
influences.  Competition  would  waken  her  to  fresh  effort, 
and  there  were  advantages  in  the  excellent  school  which 
had,  fortunately,  been  recommended  and  selected,  which 
could  not  be  obtained,  even  with  the  best  teachers,  at  home. 
In  looking  back  upon  her  life,  Muriel  always  felt  a  thrill 
of  thankfulness  for  the  influence  which  the  principal  of 
this  school  exercised,  almost  without  an  exception,  over  her 
scholars.  She  was  a  woman  of  unusual  mind  and  character; 
her  "  reason  firm  and  temperate  will  "  made  themselves  felt 
in  every  department  of  the  large  school  which  she  governed, 
and  she  had  one  of  the  governing  faculties — clear  insight 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  II 

as  to  character.  Much  as  she  was  loved,  she  was  also 
slightly  feared,  by  all  whose  intentions  were  not  of  the  most 
true  and  upright,  and  Muriel,  growing  daily  fonder  of,  and 
more  reverent  toward  the  governor  of  her  small  world,  un- 
consciously tried  to  form  her  own  character  upon  the  model 
she  so  admired  ;  and  Mrs.  Willis,  seeing,  as  she  could  not 
fail  to  see,  the  bent  of  Muriel's  mind,  and  her  strong  ten- 
dency to  hero-worship,  tried  to  lead  her  pupil  on  to  the 
heights  where  only  a  Heavenly  Exemplar  seems  worthy  to 
be  imitated. 

It  was  at  this  school  that  Muriel  began,  for  the  first  time 
in  her  life,  to  make  friends.  At  first,  her  shy,  stiff  manner 
put  her  at  a  painful  disadvantage  ;  she  was  considered 
"  proud,"  and  this  idea  was  fostered  by  the  unwisely  rich 
clothing  with  which  her  grand-parents  had  provided  her. 
She  was  not  long  in  seeing  the  difference  between  herself 
and  the  other  girls,  in  this  respect,  but  the  effect  was  en- 
tirely an  opposite  one  from  that  which  would  have  been 
produced  upon  many  girls.  A  great  dread  that  she  was 
supposed  to  be  "  showing  off  "  took  possession  of  her  ;  she 
ripped  trimmings  away  with  a  reckless  hand,  hid  in  her 
trunk  the  most  plainly  unsuitable  of  her  garments,  and 
wrote  pleadingly  to  her  grandmother  for  some  "  quiet," 
inexpensive  gowns,  which  would  not  render  her  conspicu- 
ous. It  was  owing  solely  to  Mr.  Hardcastle's  very  positive 
intervention,  that  her  request  was  gratified,  but  before  its 
results  arrived,  her  comrades  were  beginning  to  revise  their 
hastily-formed  opinions  of  her.  The  life  of  utter  seclusion, 
which  she  had  heretofore  led,  had  saved  her  from  all  arro- 
gance concerning  the  wealth  and  standing  of  her  family. 
Neither  of  her  grandparents  was  in  the  least  purse-proud, 
and  although,  she  had  always  been  amply  supplied  with 
pocket-money,  she  had  also  been  supplied  with  every  thing 
necessary  to  her  daily  living,  and  often  the  coming  of  one 


12  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

month's  allowance  found  that  of  the  previous  month  almost 
untouched.  She  was  not  naturally  ungenerous,  but  her 
pity  and  sympathy  had  been  appealed  to  so  seldom,  that 
they  were  dormant,  and,  even  after  her  life  was  broadened 
by  the  change  from  home  to  school,  things  remained  much 
the  same,  in  this  respect,  for  a  good  while.  Then,  as  Mrs. 
Willis  divined  more  and  more  the  life  which  had  cramped, 
and  well-nigh  dwarfed,  Muriel's  mind  and  heart  for  so  many 
years,  she  began  quietly  to  draw  out  the  feelings  which 
she  hoped  to  find  had  been  merely  repressed  and  not  ut- 
terly stifled.  She  knew  that  Muriel  was  to  inherit  her 
grandfather's  very  large  fortune  ;  this  Mrs.  Hardcastle  had 
mentioned,  when  she  placed  Muriel  at  the  school,  having  a 
dimly  defined  idea  that  a  knowledge  of  this  important  fact 
would  secure  consideration,  if  not  privilege,  for  her  grand- 
child, above  that  shown  to  her  comrades.  In  this  she  was 
totally  mistaken  ;  it  was  one  of  the  chief  aims  of  Mrs.  Wil- 
lis's daily  life  to  give  her  girls  a  standard  of  judgment 
quite  unbiased  by  such  considerations  as  this,  and,  being 
very  much  in  earnest,  she  was,  in  the  main,  successful.  A 
suspicion  that  Muriel  was  purse-proud  had  been  the  cause 
of  her  unpopularity  for  some  few  weeks  after  she  entered 
the  school,  and  as  her  shyness  increased  with  the  knowledge 
that  she  was  not  liked,  it  seemed  as  if  the  fate  of  isola- 
tion, which  she  had  so  fervently  hoped  to  escape  when  she 
left  her  lonely  home,  was  pursuing  her  even  into  the  midst 
of  the  throng  which  now  surrounded  her.  She  was  intensely 
miserable  while  this  lasted,  and  even  home-sick,  for  her 
grandfather  had  made  her  more  and  more  his  comrade  in- 
tellectually, as  she  grew  older,  and  her  mind  expanded,  and 
she  missed  even  his  cold  and  limited  sympathy.  But,  as 
time  went  on,  the  prospect  brightened.  The  more  observ- 
ant among  the  girls  soon  decided  that  no  one  with  Muriel's 
face  and  manner  could  be  really  "  proud."  Her  eager  ac- 


W.  I  YS  A  ND  ME  A  NS.  1 3 

ceptance  of  the  least  proffer  of  friendliness  confirmed  this 
decision,  and  the  change  in  her  dress  was  not  without  its 
effect.  Mrs.  "\yillis  encouraged  acquaintance  between  her 
day-scholars  and  boarders,  and  allowed  the  exchange  of 
visits  when  it  did  not  interfere  with  school  duties,  and  in 
this  way,  more  than  in  any  other,  Muriel's  shyness  grad- 
ually wore  off,  and  the  joyous,  hopeful  nature,  which  was  her 
birthright,  began  to  assert  itself.  But  it  grieved  Mrs.  Wil- 
lis to  see  how,  after  every  vacation,  much  of  this  work  of 
expansion  must  be  done  over  again,  for  these  vacations, 
passed,  as  they  always  were,  in  the  silence  and  seclusion  of 
that  unhomelike  home,  undid  the  good  work  of  her  school- 
life,  in  very  large  measure.  One  change,  however,  made 
such  sturdy  growth  that  it  resisted  the  dwarfing  influence. 
She  had  been  awakened  to  the  power  of  good  which  lay  in 
rightly-spent  money,  and  her  vacations,  with  Margery  for 
a  willing  helper,  began  to  be  brightened  with  the  blessed- 
ness of  giving.  Margery's  escape  from  the  stifling  quiet 
of  the  house  had  been  a  general  friendliness  with  the  maids 
of  neighboring  houses,  and  with  all  the  "  butchers  and 
bakers  and  candlestick-makers"  whose  business  brought 
them  within  her  ken.  She  was  no  scandal-monger,  but  it 
could  not  be  denied  that  she  loved  a  good  gossip,  which 
her  kindly  nature  and  keen  sense  of  humor  saved  from  any 
harmful  tendency.  Piloted  by  her,  Muriel  began  to  make 
adventurous  little  voyages  into  other  people's  lives,  vainly 
attempting,  as  she  did  so,  to  take  with  her  at  least  the  in- 
terest and  sympathy  of  her  grandparents.  And  here,  once 
more,  her  grandfather  came  to  her  rescue.  Mrs.  Hard- 
castle,  in  the  very  beginning  of  this  new  departure,  tried  to 
put  a  stop  to  the  proceedings  ;  she  was  sure  that  Muriel 
would  be  imposed  upon  ;  that  she  would  run  risks  of  catch- 
ing "  all  sorts  of  dreadful  diseases  ;  "  that  contact  with 
"  such  people  "  would  "  hopelessly  vulgarize  "  her.  Mr. 


14  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

Hardcastle  summoned  Margery  to  one  of  the  rare  inter- 
views which  always  filled  that  good  woman  with  awe ;  he 
questioned  her  closely,  charged  her  strictly,  and  dismissed 
her  from  the  library  to  make  room  for  his  wife,  who,  dread- 
ing reproof  for  some  unconscious  dereliction,  was  greatly 
relieved  to  find  that  she  was  only  to  receive  a  fresh  com- 
mand. 

"  You  will  oblige  me,  Janet,"  said  her  husband,  coldly, 
"  by  not  interfering  with  Muriel's  disposition  of  her  allow- 
ance. She  will  one  day  have  a  large  fortune  at  her  dis- 
posal, and  unwise  restrictions  laid  upon  her  now  will  make 
her  a  spendthrift  when  the  opportunity  arrives.  I  have 
given  Margery  instructions  which  will,  I  think,  sufficiently 
guard  and  protect  Muriel,  and  you  will  please  understand 
that  the  matter  is  settled." 

It  was — so  far  as  actual  restraint  was  concerned,  but  poor 
Mrs.  Hardcastle,  irritated  by  the  iron  hand  from  which  the 
velvet  glove  had  long  since  dropped,  could  not,  or  did  not 
refrain  from  harassing  Muriel  with  dismal  prophecies  and 
dire  forebodings  as  to  the  effect  of  "  indiscriminate  alms- 
givings," so  that  what  promised  to  be  a  deep  and  heartfelt 
pleasure,  was  too  often  turned  into  actual  pain.  The  pleas- 
ure revived,  however,  with  her  returns  to  school,  for  Mrs. 
Willis  never  lost  an  opportunity  to  interest  her  girls  in 
whatever  good  work  was  going  on  in  the  large  town,  in  one 
of  the  suburbs  of  which  her  school  was  situated,  and  Muriel, 
confiding  more  and  more  in  the  love  and  sound  judgment  of 
this  true  friend,  gained  fresh  opportunities  for  helping  and 
sympathizing. 

There  had  never  been  the  slightest  religious  influence  in 
her  home  since  her  young  mother's  death.  Mrs.  Douglas 
had  been  a  real,  if  a  very  timid,  Christian,  and  young  as 
Muriel  was  at  the  time  of  her  mother's  death,  she  could  re- 
member the  prayer  she  had  been  taught,  and  the  beautiful 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  1 5 

patience  and  forbearance  of  her  mother's  character.  Mr 
and  Mrs.  Hardcastle  were  members  of  a  wealthy  congrega- 
tion, and  the  former  gave  with  tolerable  liberality  to  the 
various  charities  under  its  charge,  but  neither  professed  an 
interest  which  they  did  not  feel.  Muriel  was  regularly 
taken  to  church,  and  her  grandmother  sometimes  set  her  a 
Sunday  task  of  hymn  or  Bible  verses,  and  that  was  all. 
Margery  was  a  staunch  and  bigoted  "  kirk  "  woman,  and 
had  been  straitly  charged  by  Mr.  Hardcastle  not  to  attempt 
to  transmit  her  "views"  on  this  subject  to  her  nursling,  so 
that  Muriel's  idea  of  religion,  until  she  had  come  under  Mrs. 
Willis's  care,  had  been  that  it  was  a  somewhat  irksome 
bondage,  necessary  to  respectability,  but  otherwise  not  to 
be  desired.  The  warm,  vital  faith  which  governed  every 
province  of  Mrs.  Willis's  life,  surprised  and  puzzled  her, 
but  the  counteracting  home  influence  swayed  her  away 
from  it,  time  after  time,  just  as  its  attraction  had  nearly 
asserted  itself.  Mrs.  Willis  watched  the  struggle  with  lov- 
ing and  prayerful  interest,  never  refraining  from  the  word 
in  season,  but  carefully  avoiding  the  mistake,  made  by  too 
many  good  people,  of  invading  the  "  sanctuary  heart," 
which,  in  Muriel,  was  peculiarly  shrinking  and  sensitive. 

It  was  at  the  beginning  of  Muriel's  last  school-year  that 
she  was  summoned  to  her  grandmother's  bedside.  Mrs. 
Hardcastle  had  so  long  been  ailing  that  even  Margery  sus- 
pected no  immediate  danger  until  the  end  was  very  near. 
Perhaps,  had  the  poor  lady  felt  any  great  desire  for  con- 
tinued life  in  "  this  troublesome  world,"  the  desire  would 
have  worked  its  own  fulfillment,  but  disappointment,  repres- 
sion and  physical  distress  had  done  their  work.  A  gradual 
weakening,  happily  without  much  pain;  then  a  sudden  fail- 
ure of  the  tired  heart,  and  she  was  gone. 

She  had  recognized  Muriel  with  a  faint  smile,  and  an 
eager  embrace,  and  with  the  recollection  of  this  the  poor 


X6  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

child  tried  to  be  as  sorry  as  she  blamed  herself  for  not 
being.  That  curious  change  which  sometimes  follows 
death,  stamped  a  beauty  and  dignity  upon  the  poor,  pale 
face,  which,  to  Muriel,  were  startlingly  new  ;  to  Mr.  Hard- 
castle  were  a  reproach  so  bitter  that  his  grief  surprised 
himself  fully  as  much  as  it  did  his  household.  He  saw  once 
more  the  girlish  face  which  had  caught  his  fancy,  and  sur- 
prised him  out  of  his  prudence.  He  recalled  the  happy, 
confiding  belief  in  him  which  had  marked  the  first  year  of 
their  engagement  ;  then  the  gradual  change  to  weariness 
and  sadness,  as  he  still  failed,  year  by  year,  to  deliver 
her  from  her  bondage;  then  the  brief  glow  of  revived  love 
and  youthful  happiness,  and  then — he  groaned  in  bitterness 
of  spirit  as  he  remembered  how  that  had  ended;  how  his  un- 
reasonable anger  and  disappointment  had  developed  into 
the  still  more  unreasonable  severity  which  had  gradually 
warped  their  daily  life  out  of  all  beauty  and  comeliness.  If 
the  dead  could  return  to  life  after  the  work  of  the  Great 
Revealer  has  been  wrought,  would  the  lesson,  one  often 
wonders,  be  acted  upon  ?  There  is  no  reason  to  believe 
that  it  would. 

Muriel  was  touched  to  the  heart  by  her  grandfather's 
stricken  face,  and  urged  him,  in  all  sincerity,  to  allow  her  to 
remain  with  him  for  the  present,  even  should  he  wish  her  to 
make  up  later  the  time  taken  from  her  last  school  year. 
But  to  this  he  would  not  listen.  His  grief  produced  no 
added  tenderness  toward  his  grandchild  ;  indeed,  in  his 
efforts  to  conceal  it  and  to  appear  as  usual,  his  manner  be- 
came even  more  cold  and  indifferent  than  it  had  been,  and 
it  was  with  a  thrill  of  thankfulness  for  which  she  bitterly 
reproached  herself,  that  she  made  ready  to  return  to  her 
beloved  school. 

This  was  late  in  the  winter.    During  the  two  weeks'  holiday 
at  Easter  there  was  a  slight  change.     He  seemed  to  like  to 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  l^ 

have  her  with  him  ;  he  talked  to  her  more  freely  than  he 
had  ever  before  talked  about  her  prospects  as  heiress  of  his 
house  and  large  fortune,  and  although  he  immediately  and 
finally  vetoed  her  timid  suggestion  that  certain  of  her  rela- 
tives were  entitled  to  some  part  of  the  latter,  he  was  not 
angry  with  her  for  making  it,  and  even  took  great  pains  to 
convince  her  that  he  was  acting  in  the  matter  after  a  full 
consideration  of  all  the  circumstances.  He  had  never  en- 
couraged her  in  any  intimacy  with  the  relatives  in  ques- 
tion. Formal  calls,  and  still  more  formal  dinners  and  tea 
drinkings,  had  limited  her  acquaintance  with  them.  Her 
mother's  three  aunts,  the  Misses  Sabina,  Clarissa  and  Jessie 
Gordon  and  their  brother,  Arthur  Gordon,  had  been  in- 
clined to  assert  their  relationship  to  and  interest  in  Muriel, 
and  perhaps  had  she  found  them  very  attractive,  she  might 
have  succeeded  in  influencing  her  grandfather  to  allow  her 
more  intimacy  with  them  ;  but  the  two  older  Misses  Gordon 
were  elderly,  formal  women,  who  had  long  since  forgotten 
their  own  youth,  and  ceased  to  tolerate  that  of  any  one  else, 
and  their  step-sister  and  brother,  Jessie  and  Arthur,  al- 
though many  years  younger,  and  in  some  respects  more 
attractive,  had  chilled  Muriel's  slight  overtures  of  friendship 
by  a  tendency  to  ridicule  her  youthful  beliefs  and  enthusi- 
asms. Her  cousins,  Kate  and  Julia  Hardcastle,  daughters 
of  a  younger  brother  of  her  grandfather's,  were  lively,  fash- 
ionable girls,  well  educated,  but  considering  themselves 
"  finished  "  while  she  was  still  at  school ;  and,  while  very 
ready  to  be  friendly  with  her,  voting  her,  between  them- 
selves, "tiresome."  Their  father's  and  mother's  very  com- 
fortable circumstances  kept  them  from  any  thing  but  an 
occasional  passing  feeling  of  envy  toward  Muriel;  it  would 
be  "  so  nice,"  they  agreed,  to  have  money  quite  in  their  own 
right  and  without  any  parental  strictures  or  restrictions,  but 
while  all  their  real  and  most  of  their  fancied  wants  were 


18  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

gratified,  they  did  not  think  it  worth  while  to  be  openly 
jealous  of  Muriel ;  it  would  do  no  good  ;  of  that  they  were 
well  persuaded,  for  their  uncle  was  notorious  for  his  dog- 
ged determination  in  all  his  purposes,  and  when  she  did 
"  come  into  "  her  fortune,  and  that  handsome,  if  stiff  and 
formal  looking  home,  she  would  be  worth  claiming  as 
a  cousin  and  friend.  Muriel  liked  them  very  well.  Their 
lively  talk  amused  her  and  they  dressed  with  admirable 
good  taste.  One  other  cousin,  her  father's  niece,  May 
Douglas,  she  would  love,  she  thought,  if  she  might  only 
have  the  chance.  This  May  Douglas  was  also  an  orphan, 
within  a  year  of  Muriel's  age.  She  lived  with  her  aunt, 
Miss  Agnes  Forsythe,  in  a  small,  old-fashioned  house  in  a 
quiet  quarter  of  the  city.  Miss  Forsythe  was  book-keeper 
in  a  large  millinery  establishment,  and  May  taught  in  the 
excellent  private  school  in  which  she  had  been  educated. 
She  had  just  begun  teaching  when  Muriel  entered  upon  her 
last  school  year,  and  though  the  girls  met  but  seldom,  a 
warm  liking  existed  between  them,  ready  to  ripen  into  a  still 
warmer  feeling  should  the  opportunity  occur. 

Knowing,  as  she  did  know,  how  useless  it  would  be  to  sug- 
gest that  even  a  small  legacy  would  be  a  great  assistance 
to  May  Douglas,  Muriel  resisted  the  temptation  to  speak  of 
it,  but  she  sometimes  found  herself  evolving  plans  for  be- 
stowing comforts  and  luxuries  upon  May,  in  such  a  manner 
that  they  could  not  possibly  be  refused,  and  then  blushed 
to  think  that  the  plans  which  gave  her  so  much  satisfaction 
were  dependent,  for  their  carrying  out,  upon  her  grand- 
father's death.  But  then,  she  reasoned,  was  he  not  himself 
continually  speaking  of  the  time  when  she  would  be  the 
owner  of  his  house  and  money  ?  And  had  he  not  urged 
her  to  prepare  herself  for  that  time  and  not  "  let  her  head 
be  turned  "  when  it  should  come  ?  "  If  my  brother  had  a 
son,"  he  said  to  her  one  day,  after  one  of  these  talks,  "  I 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  19 

should  leave  you  merely  a  comfortable  maintenance,  and 
the  house  with  the  bulk  of  the  fortune  to  him.  As  it  is,  I 
elect  you,  rather  than  Julia  or  Kate,  for  my  heir,  because 
you  have  more  sense  and  a  better  education  than  both  of 
them  put  together,  and  I  think  I  can  trust  you  not  to 
squander  the  money  or  make  a  public  fool  of  yourself.  But 
of  one  thing  I  must  strongly  warn  you.  As  soon  as  the 
amount  of  your  fortune,  which  is  more,  I  can  tell  you,  than 
you  imagine,  becomes  known,  you  will  have  no  lack  of  so- 
called  lovers,  and  I  would  willingly  wager  the  whole  of  it 
that,  out  of  them  all,  not  one  would  keep  his  place  were  you 
suddenly  to  become  penniless.  Not  that  you  are  ill-looking, 
or  at  all  to  be  despised,  Muriel,  but  simply  that,  at  the  pres- 
ent day,  money  is  the  chief  if  not  the  only  consideration, 
and  while,  no  doubt  many  of  your  suitors  will  honestly  be- 
lieve themselves  in  love  with  you,  they  will  be  unconsciously 
influenced  by  the  thought  of  your  money,  while  others  less 
fastidious  will  not  attempt  to  hide  from  themselves  at  least 
their  real  motive  in  seeking  you." 

This  bitter  and  cynical  talk  was  not  without  its  effect 
upon  Muriel,  both  at  the  time  when  it  was  uttered,  and  long 
afterward,  but  Mrs.  Willis's  wholesome  influence  did  much 
to  counteract  the  mischief,  and,  in  the  absorbing  occupa- 
tion of  her  last  year  at  school,  it  was,  for  a  time,  entirely 
forgotten.  She  graduated  with  honor,  but  it  was  with  a 
curious  feeling  of  dismay  that  she  bade  good-by  to  Mrs. 
Willis  and  her  schoolmates,  to  return  to  the  large,  silent 
house,  and  the  life  which  seemed,  at  each  fresh  resumption 
of  it,  more  completely  to  hedge  her  in.  She  had  intended 
writing  to  her  grandfather,  and  asking  permission  to  bring 
home  with  her  the  girl  with  whom,  for  some  time  past,  she 
had  been  most  intimate,  Lena  Fairfax,  whose  home  was  in 
a  distant  city,  but  her  courage  had  failed  in  the  matter,  and 
the  friends  parted  only  with  a  general  hope  of  some  day 


20  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

meeting  again,  and  ardent  promises  to  "  write  very  often  " 
in  the  mean  time. 

The  summer  dragged  slowly  by.  Muriel  added  garden- 
ing to  her  other  occupations,  but  she  was  still  feeling  lan- 
guid with  the  reaction  from  that  exciting  "  last  year,"  and 
all  she  did  seemed  objectless  and  futile.  Even  her  pen- 
sioners no  longer  interested  her  as  they  had  done  at  first, 
and  although  she  faithfully  followed  up  Margery's  informa- 
tion and  suggestions,  it  was  in  a  dull  and  spiritless  fashion 
of  which  she  was  herself  ashamed. 

She  longed  unspeakably  for  a  thorough  change — for  the 
free,  open  country,  the  mountains,  the  sea,  but  when  she 
ventured  to  suggest  to  her  grandfather  that  they  should 
"go  somewhere,"  if  only  for  a  few  weeks,  his  cold  and 
decided  negative  to  the  proposal  made  her  wonder  at  her 
own  daring. 

"  You  will  find  no  more  healthful  location  than  that  of 
this  house,"  he  added,  "  so  it  must  be  merely  a  foolish  rest- 
lessness and  desire  for  novelty  which  prompts  you  to  make 
this  proposal,  but  I  can  assure  you  that  no  summer  resort, 
however  luxurious,  can  afford  you  the  comforts  of  such  a 
home  as  this,  and  I  should  advise  you  to  occupy  your 
mind  with  reading  and  study,  and  then  you  will  find  less 
time  for  discontent  and  idle  wishes." 

It  was  impossible  for  her  to  say  more  on  the  subject, 
after  this,  and  Margery's  openly-expressed  pity  and  sym- 
pathy did  harm  rather  than  good.  Muriel  was  beginning 
to  pose  to  herself  as  a  martyr,  and  to  exaggerate,  rather 
than  courageously  face,  the  disagreeables  of  her  daily  life. 

About  the  middle  of  the  summer  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hard- 
castle  and  their  daughters  returned  home  for  a  few  days, 
in  transit  from  sea--$h£>re  to  mountains,  and  Mr.  Hardcastle, 
who  was  a  fussy,  good-natured  little  man,  was  seized  with  a 
fit  of  righteous  indignation  that  Muriel  should  be  "  mewed 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  21 

up  "  all  summer  with  no  companion  save  her  grandfather, 
and  he  made  a  determined  attack  upon  his  brother  in  her 
behalf,  and,  unfortunately,  in  her  presence  also.  She  saw 
the  unusual  look  of  hurt  feeling  which  swept  across  her 
grandfather's  face  as  his  brother,  in  a  few  and  plain  words, 
"  freed  his  mind,"  and  asked  that  Muriel  might  be  allowed 
to  come  with  them  for  the  rest  of  the  summer. 

"  I  am  an  old  man,"  said  the  elder  Mr.  Hardcastle, 
slowly  ;  "  I  do  not  think  I  shall  require  any  thing  of  Muriel 
much  longer,  but  she  is  at  liberty  to  go  with  you,  Andrew, 
if  she  chooses  to  do  so." 

"  Do  you  really  care — would  you  really  miss  me,  grand- 
papa ? "  asked  Muriel,  eagerly. 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  slowly,  "  I  should  miss  you — because  I 
am  used  to  seeing  and  hearing  you  about  the  house,  but  I 
do  not  actually  need  you,  Muriel ;  the  servants  are  used  to 
attending  to  my  physical  comfort.  Go,  if  you  wish  to  go." 

Muriel  wavered  ;  six  weeks  of  freedom  and  fun  with 
those  gay,  laughter-loving  cousins,  and  their  too-indulgent 
father  and  mother,  placed  side  by  side  with  six  weeks  of 
stagnation  and  hopeless  dulness  in  that  silent  house,  pre- 
sented a  contrast  so  brilliant,  so  captivating,  that  her  uncle 
had  nearly  won  his  cause,  when,  looking  once  more,  and 
with  unwonted  keenness,  at  her  grandfather  to  try  to  dis- 
cover his  real  feeling  about  the  matter,  she  noticed  how 
rapidly  he  had  failed  since  his  wife's  death.  His  thin  hair 
had  grown  perfectly  white  ;  his  cheeks  were  hollow  and 
pale,  and  his  dim  eyes  somehow,  for  the  first  time,  im- 
pressed her  as  having  grown  more  dim  from  secretly  shed 
tears. 

"  I  will  not  leave  you,  grandpapa  !  "  she  cried,  crossing 
the  room,  and  taking  his  trembling  hand  between  her  warm, 
strong  ones.  "  I  did  not  know  you  would  care,  but  I  am 
so  glad  to  find  you  would,  that  I  shall  not  mind  in  the  least ! 


22  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

Thank  you,  very,  very  much,  uncle,  and  please  thank  aunt 
and  the  girls  for  wanting  me,  but  I  can  not  go  !  " 

"  And  really,  Matilda,"  said  the  younger  Mr.  Hardcastle, 
when  he  told  the  result  of  the  interview  to  his  wife,  "  what 
troubles  me  most  is  the  uselessness  of  the  sacrifice.  An- 
thony might  as  well  have  been  a  stone  post,  for  all  the  grati- 
tude he  expressed  for  that  dear,  warm-hearted  little  thing's 
sacrifice.  It  provokes  me  whenever  I  think  of  it  ! " 

But  to  Muriel,  the  quick,  clinging  pressure  of  her  grand- 
father's hand  contradicted  his  impassive  face  ;  she  was 
satisfied,  even  then,  and  far  more  than  satisfied,  when,  a  few 
months  later,  she  found  that  he  had  at  that  very  time  been 
suffering  with  disease  which  he  knew  to  be  incurable.  He 
died  early  in  the  following  February,  and  the  last  few  days 
of  his  life  obliterated,  for  the  time  being,  the  memory  of 
much  that  had  gone  before.  He  slept  a  good  deal  of  the 
time,  but  whenever  he  was  awake,  he  seemed  uneasy  and 
distressed  if  she  were  not  present,  and  pleased  when  she 
held  his  hand,  or  gently  stroked  his  face.  He  was  too  weak 
for  any  connected  talk,  but  a  look  of  distress  often  crossed 
his  face,  and  once  she  heard  him  murmur  : 

"  Treasure  in  Heaven  !  If  I  had  only  a  little,  little  more 
time  !  " 

And  another  time,  when  she  was  bathing  his  face,  he 
looked  at  her  appealingly,  and  said  : 

"  You  II  lay  it  up  there,  Muriel  ?  And  who  knows,  per- 
haps— no,  no,  it  will  not  be  credited  to  me.  '  Whatsoever 
a  man  soweth '  " 

And  while  Muriel  struggled  agonizingly  with  her  shyness, 
and  a  sense  of  her  utter  unfitness  to  speak  upon  such  sub- 
jects, he  fell  into  the  uneasy  sleep  from  which  she  dared 
not  wake  him.  He  had  listened  politely  to  the  brief  words 
of  exhortation  and  prayer  offered  by  the  clergyman  of  his 
parish,  who  called  two  or  three  times  during  his  illness,  but 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  23 

it  distressed  Muriel  beyond  measure  to  see  that  he  looked 
upon  the  visits  as  a  mere  matter  of  form,  and  seemed  to 
attach  no  meaning  to  the  words.  But  on  the  night  of  his 
death,  as  she  sat  patiently  by  his  bedside,  holding  his  cold 
hand,  and  speaking  gently  to  him  whenever  he  seemed  to 
be  awake,  he  suddenly  opened  his  eyes  and  gazed  earnestly 
at  her,  and  said,  in  a  clear,  firm  voice: 

"  I  am  sorry  !  " 

Conquering  herself  by  a  violent  effort,  she  answered  : 

"  That  is  all  God  asks,  Grandpa.  He  will  forgive 
you." 

"  Perhaps,  perhaps,"  said  the  old  man,  in  failing  tones, 
and  before  Muriel  could  call  the  nurse,  he  was  gone. 

And  now  the  funeral  was  over.  The  clear,  business-like 
will  had  been  read,  and  Muriel,  with  an  over-burdened,  too- 
responsible  feeling,  understood  that  she  was  mistress  of  an 
income  which,  under  any  circumstances,  would  reach  thirty 
thousand  dollars  a  year,  and  might,  with  careful  manage- 
ment, far  exceed  that  sum. 

Mr.  Hardcastle  had  invested  in  real  estate  which  was 
daily  rising  in  value ;  and  in  stocks  and  bonds  of  the  safer 
kind,  and  his  lawyer  explained  and  expounded  to  Muriel, 
until  it  seemed  to  her  that  the  effort  to  understand  had 
fairly  benumbed  her  brain. 

She  had  very  quietly,  but  very  firmly,  resisted  the  efforts 
made  by  her  relatives  to  induce  her  to  stay  with  them,  and 
close  the  house,  "  at  least  for  the  present."  It  seemed  to 
her  that,  if  she  might  not  have  peace  and  silence,  and  a 
chance  to  settle  matters  with  herself,  she  should  lose  her 
reason.  And  at  last  they  left  her,  making  characteristic 
comments  on  the  strangeness  of  her  behavior  as  they  went. 
She  had  assured  her  Aunt  Matilda,  who  had  been  the  most 
pertinacious,  and  difficult  to  escape  of  them  all,  that  she 
would  send  for  a  companion,  should  she  feel  the  need  of 


24  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

one,  and  that  Margery  should,  for  the  present,  sleep  in  a 
room  adjoining  her  own. 

The  funeral  and  reading  of  the  will  had  taken  place  in 
the  morning,  but  it  was  three  o'clock  before  she  was  left 
alone.  Margery  had  kindled  a  cheery  little  wood-fire  on 
the  library  hearth,  and  coaxed  Muriel  into  a  deep  reclining- 
chair  in  front  of  it,  hovering  about  the  room,  in  her  loving 
anxiety,  until  Muriel  could  bear  it  no  longer,  and  gently 
dismissed  her. 

And  then  it  seemed  to  the  overwrought  girl  that  the 
battle  really  began.  Despite  her  recent  loss  of  rest,  she  felt 
as  if  she  should  never  sleep  again,  and  the  days  of  her  life 
marshaled  themselves  past,  in  bewildering  procession.  Had 
it  been,  after  all,  she  wondered,  her  own  fault  that  her  life 
was  such  a  loveless  one  ?  Might  she  not,  if  she  had  sooner 
showed  tenderness  and  feeling,  have  awakened  them  in  her 
grandparents  ?  No — although  in  her  present  frame  of  mind 
it  would  have  comforted  her  to  heap  reproaches  upon  her- 
self, she  recalled,  against  her  will,  the  manner  in  which  all 
her  childish  advances  had  been  met,  until,  almost  uncon- 
sciously to  herself,  they  had  ceased.  She  found  herself 
even  doubting  the  affection  which  her  grandfather  had  re- 
cently seemed  to  feel  for  her. 

"  It  was  only  because  he  was  dying  and  felt  afraid,  and 
had  no  one  else  to  turn  to  !  "  she  said  to  herself,  bitterly. 
"  If  he  had  recovered  from  this  illness,  he  would  have  been 
cold,  and  stern  and  cynical  again.  He  has  never  really 
loved  me.  Nobody  has  ever  loved  me.  Oh,  what  hateful, 
hateful  thoughts,  when — but  why  should  I  thank  him  for 
leaving  it  all  to  me,  when  he  could  not  take  it  with  him  ? 
It  is  like  a  millstone  round  my  neck  already — I  should  be 
far,  far  happier  if  I  had  to  work  as  May  and  Miss  Forsythe 
work.  Suppose  I  should  grow  like  him,  valuing  money 
just  for  it's  own  sake  ?  And  I  don't  know  how  to  spend  it 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  25 

rightly  !  I  must  give  account  of  it ;  it  is  crushing  me  even 
now.  Oh,  I  thought  I  wanted  to  be  alone,  but  this  is  worst 
of  all,  worst  of  all  !  " 

She  rushed  to  the  writing-table,  and,  controlling  with 
difficulty  her  repugnance  to  disturbing  its  arrangement — it 
was  just  as  her  grandfather  had  left  it — she  found  pen  and 
paper,  and  wrote  a  hasty  note. 

DEAR  MAY  : — Can  you  come  and  stay  with  me  to-night  ? 
Come  at  once,  if  you  can.  I  am  all  alone.  I  am  very 
lonely.  Yours,  MURIEL. 

She  would  not  wait  to  write  more  to  explain.  She  could 
do  that  after  May  came,  for  she  felt  no  doubt  as  to  the  re- 
sponse to  this  appeal  ;  and  her  faith  was  justified.  Neither 
Miss  Forsythe  nor  May  had  been  at  the  funeral  ;  the  hour 
at  which  it  took  place  made  the  attendance  of  either  im- 
possible, and  May,  longing  to  offer  sympathy,  yet  fearing 
to  intrude,  should  she  go  too  soon,  waited  only  to  read  the 
note,  and  obtain  her  aunt's  hearty  sanction,  and  then  hast- 
ened  to  Muriel. 


CHAPTER    II. 

SEEKING  A  CLUE. 

"  I  do  not  know  the  use  or  name 

Of  that  I  spin  ; 
I  only  know  that  Some  One  came 

And  laid  within 

My  hand  the  thread,  and  said,  '  Since  you 
Are  blind,  but  one  thing  you  can  do."  " 

— H.  H.  JACKSON. 

THE  cousins  met  in  perfect  silence,  but  when  Muriel  felt 
the  warm  pressure  of  May's  arms,  the  soft  touch  of 
her  cheek,  the  whirl  of  bewildering  thought  seemed  suddenly 
to  stop,  and  tears  came  instead.  May  drew  her  "down  on 
the  lounge,  and  held  her  fast,  murmuring  loving  words,  but 
making  no  attempt  to  stop  those  healing  tears.  And 
somehow  Muriel  felt  a  sense  of  perfect  safety  ;  had  it  been 
possible  for  her  to  cry  before  any  other  member  of  the 
family,  she  would  have  felt  that  she  must  explain,  or  be 
branded  as  a  hypocrite,  for  no  one  had  ever  suspected 
Anthony  Hardcastle  of  the  least  tenderness  of  feeling.  But 
when,  after  sobbing  a  few  minutes,  she  gasped  : 

"  Oh,  it's  all  so  miserable,  so  miserable  !  "  May  answered 
quietly. 

"  I  know  what  you  mean,  dear,"  and  Muriel  cried  on  till 
she  could  cry  no  more.  Then  May  "  settled '"'  her  on  the 
lounge,  as  tenderly  as  a  mother  could  have  done  it,  made 
up  the  sinking  fire,  lighted  the  reading-lamp  and  drew  the 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  2 7 

curtains,  for  daylight  was  fading  by  this  time,  and  she  did 
not  mean  Muriel  to  have  any  twilight  to-night. 

Muriel  watched  her  as  she  moved  deftly  about  the  room, 
with  an  indescribable  sense  of  rest  and  comfort,  and  when, 
having  succeeded  in  making  it  cosy  and  cheerful,  May  said: 

"  I  wonder  if  Margery  would  let  us  have  our  tea  here, 
to-night  ? " 

Muriel  eagerly  caught  at  the  suggestion.  May  had  guessed, 
from  Muriel's  wan  face  and  trembling  hands,  that  the  lat- 
ter had  eaten  little  or  nothing  that  day,  so,  when  Margery 
came,  in  answer  to  her  ring,  so  promptly  as  to  show  that 
she  had  staid  as  near  her  child  as  she  dared  stay,  May 
said  pleasantly  : 

"  Will  you  let  us  have  our  tea  here  to-night,  Margery, 
and  let  me  mention  that  I  had  only  a  rather  light  lunch  to- 
day ?  " 

Margery  bestowed  a  b<  iming  smile  of  gratitude  on  May» 
and  then  hurried  to  the  kitchen  to  give  private  instructions 
to  the  cook,  returning  to  spread  a  tray  with  daintiest  napery, 
and  glass  and  silver,  so  that,  when  Muriel  found  herself 
seated  at  the  little  round  table  which  Margery  noiselessly 
brought  in,  she  also  found  that  she  was  faint  with  hunger, 
and  ate  enough  to  satisfy  both  her  loving  watchers,  anx- 
ious as  they  were.  Then  May  coaxed  her  back  to  the 
lounge,  establishing  herself  near  it  in  the  easy-chair,  and 
for  awhile  they  watched  the  fire  in  that  restful  silence  which 
can  only  exist  between  true  friends.  It  was  Muriel  who 
spoke  first. 

"  It  is  dreadfully  humiliating,  May,"  she  said,  with  a 
little  sigh,  "  to  discover  that  much  which  we  attribute  to  our 
minds  and  hearts  is  almost  entirely  physical  !  " 

May  saw  at  once  what  she  meant.  The  change  in  her 
expression,  since  she  had  been  strengthened  with  food  and 
rest,  made  the  remark  quite  intelligible. 


28  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

"  No,  I  don't  think  it's  exactly  humiliating,"  said  May, 
thoughtfully ;  "  it's  rather  suggestive,  though,  it  seems  to 
me." 

"  Suggestive  ? "  Muriel  raised  her  head  with  a  quick 
look  of  interest.  She  had  often  wished  for  a  "  good  talk  " 
with  May. 

"  Yes.  You  know  that  verse — I  can't  remember  the  exact 
words — about,  saying,  '  depart  in  peace,  be  ye  warmed  and 
filled,'  when  we  aren't  doing  any  thing  toward  it  ?  It 
seems  to  me  reformers  take  hold  of  the  blade,  instead  of 
the  handle  often.  If  we  want  the  unpeaceful  people  to 
'  depart  in  peace,'  we  must  do  all  we  can  to  make  it  possible. 
And  when  we  feel  ourselves  as  you  are  feeling  now,  the 
difference  that  it  makes,  when  we  take  the  right  sort  of 
care  of  our  'vile  bodies,'  it  brings  it  home  to  us  as  nothing 
else  could.  And  Muriel,  I  don't  think  one  should  be  un- 
just, or  cruel  to  one's  self  any  more  than  to  any  one  else.  I 
may  be  wrong — of  course,  I  do  not  know  all  about  it,  nobody 
can  know  all  about  any  thing,— but  it  seems  to  me  that, 
even  if  you  really  have  any  thing  on  your  mind  left  over 
from  the  past,  about  which  you  might  reproach  yourself, 
you'd  better  try  to  forget  it.  I  often  think  of  that  text — 
'  Thy  sins,  and  thy  iniquities  will  I  remember  no  more.'  I 
know  that  it  isn't  the  way  we  forgive  each  other  usually,  but 
what  a  comfort  it  is  to  think  that  it  is  God's  way  of  forgiv- 
ing !  I  don't  mean  that  we  should  forget  to  be  really  deeply 
sorry — to  be  careful  about  doing  the  same  thing  again  ;  but 
that's  different,  isn't  it,  from  brooding  and  worrying  over  a 
thing  until  we  unfit  ourselves  for  the  next  thing  ?  There 
is  so  much  to  do  and  so  little  time,  for  each  of  us,  in  which 
to  do  it." 

"  Yes,  I  suppose  that's  all  true ;  it  must  be  true  ;  and  it 
makes  me  think  of  something  Mrs.  Willis  said.  She  used  to 
read  to  us  in  French  twice  a  week,  and  we  took  turns  in 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  29 

giving  her  the  English  of  as  much  as  we  could  understand, 
and  one  day  she  caught  my  eye  and  laughed  a  little  ;  I  used 
to  sit  in  a  sort  of  petrified  state,  all  but  my  ears,  and  when 
it  was  over,  I  would  actuall  be  out  of  breath  !  She  so 
often  seemed  to  guess  our  thoughts,  and  that  day  she  said  : 
'  There  is  only  one  way  Muriel ;  do  not  puzzle  over  what 
I  have  said  ;  give  your  mind  to  what  I  am  saying.'  And 
afterward,  when  we  were  alone,  she  said  there  was  a  '  moral ' 
— that  sins  repented  of,  and  as  we  humbly  trusted,  forgiven, 
should  be  resolutely  forgotten,  too.  And  she  quoted  that 
hymn  : 

'  Why  should  the  children  of  a  King 
Go  mourning  all  their  days  ? ' 

"  And  I  thought  how  beautiful  it  was,  and  that  I  should 
always  remember  it,  and  now,  when  I  need  it,  it's  all — " 

Her  voice  broke  into  a  little  quivering  sigh,  but  presently 
she  spoke  again  : 

"  We've  wandered  off  from  what  we  began  with.  If  it's 
really  true,  as  the  Autocrat  says,  that  a  great  deal  that  is 
labeled  '  Theology,'  should  be  labeled  '  Piecrust,'  where  is 
the  use  in — any  thing  ?  If  our  bodies,  and  not  our  minds 
and  souls,  are  the  governing-power,  we  may  just  as  well 
give  up  first  as  last,  and  be  as  comfortable  as  we  can  ! " 

"You  don't  think  that,  Muriel — I  know  you  don't !  But 
I'll  own  that  the  same  temptation  has  attacked  me,  over 
and  over  again,  and  it  is  only  lately  that  I  have  settled 
myself  about  it." 

"  And  how  did  you  settle  yourself,  tell  me?" 

And  in  her  eagerness,  Muriel  sat  up  and  grasped  May's 
hand.  May  gently  pulled  her  down  again,  but  kept  her 
hand,  as  she  said: 

"  I  can't  put  it  into  good  words  ;  I  never  can  say  things 
exactly  as  I  think  them,  but  it  was  something  like  this — at 
first,  our  bodies  really  do  have  the  upper  hand  ;  when  we  are 


30  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

babies,  and  very  little  children,  we  cry  out  if  we  are  hurt, 
and  laugh  when  we  '  feel  good,'  and  then  as  we  grow  older, 
we  find  that  it  doesn't  always  answer  to  cry  and  laugh  with 
every  passing  feeling — that  we  must  have  some  regard  for 
the  feelings  of  other  people.  That  is  a  great  step.  But 
very  often  I  think  we  stick  fast  on  the  next  level ;  we  re- 
press the  crying  and  laughing,  but  we  take  it  out  in  other 
ways.  But,  if  we  keep  on  up,  after  awhile  we  begin  to  find 
that  the  soul  and  mind  can  conquer  ;  if  they  couldn't,  how 
could  the  martyrs  ever  have  borne  their  martyrdom  ?  I 
don't  know  whether  it's  wrong  or  not,  but  sometimes  I  really 
think,  Muriel,  that  some  of  them — the  ones  who  had  climbed, 
and  been  lifted,  highest,  didn't  feel  the  pain  at  all !  What 
first  put  that  in  my  mind,  was  something  that  happened  to 
us — to  aunty  and  me.  My  apron  caught  fire,  and  she 
crushed  out  the  flames  with  her  bare  hands,  and  actually 
didn't  know  she  had  burned  them,  till  she  took  hold  of 
something  and  found  that  each  hand  was  a  great  blister. 
You  see,  she  was  so  frightened  about  me  that  she  never 
felt  the  fire.  And  if  human  love  can  lift  a  person  up  so 
high,  it  seems  to  me  that  Divine  Love — " 

She  paused,  as  if  she  could  not  find  fitting  words  for  her 
thoughts. 

Muriel  had  listened  with  an  intent  face.  "  That's  beau- 
tiful !  "  she  said,  when  she  found  that  May  was  not  going 
to  finish  her  sentence.  "  I  wonder  if  Tennyson's  thought 
was  any  thing  like  that,  when  ne  said: 

'  That  men  may  rise  on  stepping-stones 
Of  their  dead  selves,  to  higher  things.' 

"  But  May,  I  haven't  any  right  to  any  of  it.  You  know  I've 
never — I've  always  thought  I'd  better  wait,  and  be  sure  ;  I 
was  so  afraid  of  bringing  reproach,  and  things  never  seemed 
quite  clear." 

Muriel  wondered,    afterward,  how  May  had  understood 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  31 

this  incoherent  sentence.  But  she  did,  as  her  answer  evi- 
denced. 

"  I  wouldn't  wait  any  longer  if  I  were  you,  Muriel, "  she 
said,  with  tender  earnestness.  "  It  will  only  grow  harder,  I 
think.  And  it  seems  to  me  that  you'll  need  so  much  help 
now !  And  don't  you  think  its  the  worst  '  reproach '  any 
body  can  bring,  to  stand  utterly  outside — to  refuse  alle- 
giance, as  if  we  thought  we  knew  a  better  way  ?  " 

"  Oh  !  I  never  meant  it  that  way,  never  !  "  Muriel's  face 
showed  how  much  the  suggestion  shocked  her. 

"  No,  I  don't  suppose  any  body  quite  means  that,"  said 
May  ;  "  but  isn't  that  what  it  amounts  to,  after  all  ?  If  we 
enroll  ourselves  '  under  Christ's  banner,'  at  least,  we  show 
that  we  believe  His  is  the  strongest  power — that  we  want 
to  belong  to  Him." 

"  I  wish  I  could  see  things  as  clearly  as  you  can,  May," 
said  Muriel,  with  a  perplexed,  troubled  look  on  her  face, 
which  made  May  stoop  to  kiss  her. 

The  striking  of  the  hall-clock  startled  them  both. 

"  Eleven,"  said  May,  springing  up,  "  and  I  must  be  at 
home  at  half-past  seven  to-morrow,  and  at  school  by  half- 
past  eight.  How  thoughtless  I've  been ;  you  should  have 
been  in  bed  an  hour  ago,  you  poor,  tired  child  ! " 

"  No,  I've  been  resting  a  great  deal  better  than  I  should 
have  rested  if  I'd  gone  to  bed  early,  but  I  ought  to  have  re- 
membered about  you  ;  you'll  not  have  half  enough  sleep  I'm 
afraid.  I  wish  you  didn't  have  to  go  to  that  school !  " 

"  So  do  I,  once  in  a  while,  but  only  once  in  a  while.  I 
like  it  too  well  really  to  wish  to  give  it  up." 

"  You'll  come  back  again  to-morrow  afternoon  ?  Miss 
Agnes  will  lend  you  to  me  for  one  more  night ! " 

"  Yes  indeed — for  two  or  three  more,  if  you  like — we  al- 
ways ask  Miss  Post  to  come  and  'substitute,'  when  either  of 
us  wishes  to  go  away  for  a  night,  and  she  seems  to  like  it ; 


32  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

she  counts  it  as  '  visiting,'  and  it's  such  a  comfort  to  have 
her." 

"  Miss  Post  ? "  said  Muriel,  inquiringly. 

"Oh,  I  forgot — you  don't  know  who  she  is,  of  course. 
She's  such  a  nice  old  lady,  with  not  a  single  relation,  not 
even  a  cousin,  in  the  world.  She  '  keeps  room  '  near  our 
house,  and  takes  in  sewing  and  fancy  work,  and  she  has 
rheumatism  in  her  arm  half  the  time,  but  she's  the  cheerful- 
est  soul — come,  Muriel,  we  must  go  to  bed  !  If  I  begin  to 
talk  about  Miss  Post,  I  shall  keep  us  both  awake  all  night ; 
she's  one  of  my  specialties." 

Margery's'  anxious  face  at  the  door  emphasized  May's 
exhortation. 

"  My  bairn,"  she  said,  with  an  unconscious  lapse  of  both 
speech  and  accent,  "  you're  in  sair  need  of  sleep  ; "  and  she 
glanced  somewhat  reproachfully  at  May. 

"We're  coming  right  away,  Margery,"  said  Muriel, 
meekly,  "  and  May,  the  front  room  is  all  ready,  if  you'd 
rather  sleepthere  ;  but  if  you  don't  mind,  I  wish  you'd  sleep 
with  me." 

May  answered  with  a  kiss.  And  that  night,  for  the  first 
time  in  many  days  and  nights,  Muriel  slept  soundly  and 
sweetly,  and  woke  refreshed. 

It  seemed  to  her  such  a  very  few  minutes  since  she  fell 
asleep,  that  she  was  astonished  when  Margery,  stealing 
in  for  the  fifth  or  sixth  time  that  morning  to  see  if  her 
"  bairn  "  had  wakened  yet,  told  her  that  May  had  been  gone 
two  hours  or  more.  She  let  herself  be  coaxed  to  have  her 
breakfast  brought  before  she  rose,  and  did  not  at  all  object 
to  Margery's  gentle  "  fussing." 

"  How  many  years  is  it  since  you  washed  my  face  for  me, 
I  wonder,"  she  said,  with  a  smile  that  gladdened  her  old 
nurse's  heart.  And  all  day,  the  tender  cares  which  had  the 
day  before  tortured  her  overwrought  nerves,  soothed  and 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  33 

comforted  her,  and  helped  her  to  wait  patiently  for  May's 
return.  The  faithful  love  of  the  true-hearted  old  Scotch 
woman  seemed  to  her  more  valuable  now  than  it  ever  had 
seemed  before  ;  it  stood  between  her  and  the  world,  which, 
looked  at  from  this  new  point  of  view,  appeared  so  large,  so 
heartless,  so  totally  uninterested  in  her  and  her  concerns. 
It  was  not,  however,  the  latter,  as  she  was  very  soon  to 
find.  From  the  lawyer,  who  for  many  years  had  managed 
her  grandfather's  affairs,  down  to  Margery  herself,  she  was 
obliged  to  run  the  gauntlet  of  "  judicious  advice,"  until  she 
ceased  to  wonder  that  the  hunters  of  the  "  snark  "  had  con- 
sidered it  a  "  rousing  "  agent.  Her  great-uncle,  Andrew 
Hardcastle,  and  his  wife,  began  by  taking  for  granted  that 
she  would  immediately  close  "that  immense  house,"  and 
either  bestow  herself  upon  the  family  of  some  one  of  her 
relatives,  or  board  in  a  sufficiently  select  and  sheltered 
"establishment." 

Her  three  great  aunts  and  their  brother  went  even  further 
than  this ;  they  said  it  would  be  a  very  bold  and  unlady- 
like thing  for  a  girl  of  Muriel's  age  to  "  set  up  for  herself 
in  that  immense  house ;  if  she  must  needs  stay  there,  she 
should  at  once  provide  herself  with  a  proper  chaperone." 
This,  to  tell  the  truth,  Muriel  had  intended  to  do,  not  so 
much  for  propriety's  sake,  as  because  shr  found  the  loneli- 
ness and  silence  of  the  great  house  almost  intolerable,  but 
she  felt  that  her  choice  must  be  no  hasty  and  ill-advised 
affair,  soon  to  be  repented  of ;  she  did  not  fancy  either 
horn  of  the  dilemma  in  which  a  mistake  about  this  matter 
would  place  her  ;  continued  association  with  a  distasteful 
person,  or  the  painful  duty  of  dismissing  the  companion  as 
if  she  were  an  unsatisfactory  servant. 

All  the  great  aunts  called  upon  her  the  day  after  the 
funeral,  and  all  urged  their  views  and  opinions  decidedly,  if 
not  eloquently,  but  Muriel  would  commit  herself  to  nothing. 


34  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

"  May  Douglas  is  kind  enough  to  say  that  she  will  dine 
and  sleep  with  me  for  at  least  the  rest  of  this  week,"  she 
answered  to  the  various  exhorters,  "  and  I  must  have  a  little 
time  for  quiet  thinking  before  I  decide  upon  any  thing." 

"  May  Douglas  !  "  said  Miss  Jessie  to  Miss  Sabina,  as 
they  went  dissatisfiedly  home.  "  I've  thought  for  some  time 
that  she  was  trying  to  work  herself  into  Muriel's  good 
graces.  I  suppose  she  thinks,  now,  that  nothing  would  be 
more  natural  and  proper  than  for  Muriel  to  ask  her  and 
that  prim  aunt  of  her's  to  come  and  let  the  pleasure  of  their 
society  offset  their  board  !  I've  the  greatest  mind  in  the 
world  to  write  Muriel  a  note  and  warn  her  to  be  careful 
how  she  commits  herself  ;  if  she  once  takes  them  in,  she'll 
never  be  rid  of  them." 

"  I  don't  suppose  there  is  any  use  in  warning  you,  Jes- 
sie," said  Miss  Sabina,  sharply,  "  but  you'll  be  neither  more 
nor  less  than  a  fool  if  you  set  the  girl  against  you  by  such 
barefaced  meddling  as  that.  She's  not  a  child  ;  she  must 
be  all  of  nineteen,  and  she  has  the  Hardcastle  jaw  ;  if  you 
once  make  an  enemy  of  her,  you'll  not  only  cut  off  your 
own  nose  to  spite  your  face,  but  you'll  cut  all  of  us  off  from 
a  very  desirable  visiting  place,  for  it's  plain  to  me  that  she 
has  no  idea  of  closing  the  house.  She  enjoys  her  position 
of  lady  of  the  manor  too  much  already  to  be  willing  to  give 
it  up.  Sp,  for  your  own  sake,  you'd  better  keep  on  friendly 
terms  with  her." 

The  discussion  was  renewed  that  evening  in  full  family 
conclave.  Sabina  was  apprehensive  that  Jessie's  unguarded 
tongue  might  do  them  all  a  mischief  with  Muriel,  and  she 
wished  to  enlist  Arthur,  who  alone  seemed  to  have  any 
influence  over  Jessie  on  the  side  of  prudence.  This  was 
easily  done.  He  considered  any  thing  approaching  a  family 
quarrel  unpardonably  vulgar,  and  he  spoke  to  Jessie  with  so 
much  more  decision  and  authority  than  he  usually  exhibited 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  35 

under  any  provocation,  that  she  gave  the  promise  he  de- 
sired, or  rather  demanded  of  her,  positively,  if  somewhat 
sullenly,  and  with  that  they  were  all  content.  He  was  fond 
of  Muriel,  after  his  own  fashion,  although  he  had  never 
quite  forgiven  her  for  being  his  great-niece.  He  was  only 
her  senior  by  about  fifteen  years,  and  the  relationship  had 
always  seemed  to  him  a  sort  of  absurdity  ;  the  more,  per- 
haps, because  he  had  an  annoying  consciousness  of  appear- 
ing to  be  much  older  than  he  really  was.  He  was  slightly 
bald  and  very  near-sighted,  and,  even  when  he  was  much 
younger,  his  face  had  not  worn  a  youthful  expression.  An 
exaggerated  self-consciousness  had  led  him  into  an  exag- 
gerated idea  of  his  own  defects,  and  that  curious  sort  of  in- 
verted vanity  which  sometimes  makes  very  insignificant  peo- 
ple uncomfortable  with  the  idea  that  they  are  being  closely 
watched  and  unkindly  criticized.  A  really  bright  mind  and 
a  very  fair  amount  of  talent  in  two  or  three  directions  had 
been  dwarfed  and  defeated  by  this  unhappy  temperament, 
so  that  now,  at  thirty-five  years  old,  he  was  a  bank  clerk 
with  a  salary  which  fully  supplied  his  wants,  if  not  his  wishes, 
and  with  no  aspiration  to  be  any  thing  more.  His  two 
elder  step-sisters  still  spoke  of  and  to  Jessie  and  Arthur  as 
if  they  were  children,  although  Jessie  was  now  about  forty 
years  old,  and  Arthur,  as  has  been  said,  thirty-five.  A  cer- 
tain sort  of  cross-grained  affection  held  them  together, 
although  sometimes,  when  differences  of  opinion  waxed 
warmer  than  usual,  Arthur  would  talk  vaguely  of  taking 
Jessie  and  leaving  his  half-sisters  "  for  good."  But  there 
were  other  considerations  besides  family  affection.  The 
house  they  occupied  was  theirs  collectively  ;  a  separation 
would  necessitate  either  it's  sale  or  an  arrangement  of 
money-matters  which  would  greatly  straighten  all  their  re- 
sources. Each  had  a  small  income,  which,  living  as  they 
now  lived,  was  amply  sufficient,  but  which  would  pinch  them 


36  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

not  a  little  should  they  separate.  And  so  common  sense 
stepped  in,  when  other  considerations  failed,  and  kept  them 
together.  Miss  Jessie  had  never  been  allowed  to  meddle 
with  the  housekeeping,  and,  fortunately  for  the  general 
peace,  had  never  wished  to  do  so.  She  drew  a  little,  and 
played  a  little,  and  read  a  good  deal,  and  went  out  when 
she  was  invited  "  to  suitable  places."  But  her  life  was  in 
reality  more  empty  than  that  of  her  sisters,  for  they  gave 
the  whole  of  their  minds  to  the  housekeeping,  which  they 
regarded  with  never-varying  interest,  while  Jessie  did  not 
seem  to  be  particularly  interested  in  any  thing,  and  Muriel 
always  had,  when  she  was  with  her  Aunt  Jessie  for  any  length 
of  time,  a  sort  of  hopeless  feeling  that  nothing  was  "  worth 
while." 

The  visits  of  so-called  condolence  from  the  various  mem- 
bers of  the  family,  were  almost  more  than  Muriel  could 
bear.  It  was  too  evident  to  her  that  all  of  them,  without  a 
single  exception,  really  felt  that  she  should  be  congrat- 
ulated, rather  than  condoled  with,  and  she  knew  that,  should 
she  express  to  any  one  of  them  the  terrible  sense  of  alone- 
ttess,  which  made  her  long  for  a  return  of  the  time  which, 
in  passing,.had  seemed  so  dreary  and  hard  to  endure,  she 
would  be  considered  a  hypocrite. 

Her  uncle's  wife  and  daughters  were  announced  just  as 
the  Gordons  were  leaving,  and  she  was  obliged,  with  what 
poor  patience  she  could  muster,  to  listen  to  and  answer 
arguments,  or  rather,  perhaps,  statements  and  entreaties, 
until  her  uncle's  entrance  really  seemed  a  release.  He  had 
stopped  on  his  way  home  from  his  place  of  business,  not  at 
all  expecting  to  find  his  wife  and  daughters  there,  and  he 
wisely  decided  to  defer  the  talk  which  he  had  intended  hav- 
ing with  Muriel  to  a  time  when  they  two  could  be  alone. 
Her  flushed  face  and  look  of  excited  weariness  touched 
him,  and  he  was  not  long  in  finding  a  pretext  for  carrying  off 


W 'A  YS  AND  MEANS.  37 

his  women  folk.  He  was  a  kind-hearted,  thoroughly  well- 
meaning  little  man,  and  although,  very  probably,  had  he 
found  Muriel  alone,  he  would  have  wearied  her  quite  as 
much  as  her  aunt  and  cousins  had  done,  she  kissed  him 
good-by  with  a  fervor  of  affectionate  gratitude  which  did 
not  escape  him,  and  which  stood  her  in  good  stead  within 
the  hour. 

"  I  do  think,"  said  Mrs.  Hardcastle,  as  she  took  her 
husband's  arm  outside  the  door,  "  that  these  quiet,  self- 
contained  people,  who  don't  say  what  they're  going  to  do 
until  they're  driven  to  it,  are  a  thousand  times  harder  to 
manage  than  the  talkative  ones,  who  say  so  much  that  they 
don't  mean  half  of  it  ! " 

"  My  dear  Matilda,"  replied  Mr.  Hardcastle,  "  I  really 
can't  see  that  it  comes  within  your  province  to  '  manage  ' 
Muriel.  If  my  brother  had  wished  us  to  act  as  her  guar- 
dians, nothing  would  have  been  easier  than  for  him  to  say 
so,  but  he  showed  how  entirely  he  trusted  in  her  good  sense 
and  judgment,  by  leaving  her  that  large  property  uncondi- 
tionally. I  can't  blame  her  for  wishing  to  stay  independ- 
ently in  a  home  of  her  own,  rather  than  take  the  uncom- 
fortable position  she  must  take,  if  she  enters  the  home  of 
any  one  else  ;  but  it  will  be  highly  necessary  for  her  to  pro- 
vide herself  immediately  with  a  suitable  companion,  and 
this  I  shall  advise  her  to  do." 

"  Yes,  that's  the  way  you'll  try  to  '  manage  '  her,  papa  !  " 
said  Julia,  with  a  saucy  little  laugh.  "Well,  I  hope  you'll 
have  better  luck  than  the  rest  of  her  dear  relatives  have 
had  !  I  do  wish  I  could  have  heard  what  the  Gordon 
sisterhood  had  been  saying  to  her  !  They  looked  even 
more  like  three  thunder  clouds  than  they  usually  do — which 
is  quite  unnecessary." 

"  If  I  were  Muriel,"  said  Kate,  "  I  should  coax  that  nice 
little  May  Douglas  and  her  aunt  to  come  and  live  with  me. 


38  W 'A  YS  AND  MEANS. 

May  is  agreeable — I  mean  to  cultivate  her  when  I  have  a 
little  more  time — and  the  aunt  seems  a  quiet,  ladylike  body, 
who  would  do  very  well  to  play  propriety,  and  yet  would 
not  do  it  aggressively." 

"  They  wouldn't  be  coaxed,  if  I  know  any  thing  about  it," 
replied  Julia.  "  They're  the  'crust  of  bread  and  liberty' 
sort,  and  their  home  is  cosy  enough — much  more  agreeable 
than  that  mausoleum  of  poor  uncle's.  If  Muriel  stays  there 
alone,  she'll  be  a  raving  maniac  in  a  week  or  so  !  " 

"  My  dear  Julia  !  "  said  Mrs.  Hardcastle,  plaintively,  "  I 
do  wish  you  would  break  yourself  of  talking  in  that  man- 
ner !  It  is  really  distressing  to  me  !  " 

"  Poor  mamma  !  "  said  Julia,  compassionately,  "  You 
shouldn't  be  so  sensitive,  dear." 

"  Well,  all  I  have  to  say  is,  that  I  think  Muriel  has  a 
right  to  judge  for  herself  in  this  matter,"  said  Mr.  Hard- 
castle,  as  they  entered  the  handsome,  cheerful-looking 
house  which  did,  indeed,  by  contrast,  make  the  one  theyliad 
just  left  seem  tomb-like,  "and  now  that  you've  all  had  your 
say,  and  she  knows  what  you 'think,  you'll  be  wiser  and 
kinder,  too,  to  let  her  alone." 

"  Dear  me,  papa,  we're  not  perishing  to  have  her  here. 
I  think  we  were  very  benevolent  to  ask  her  at  all  ! "  was 
Julia's  parting  shot,  as  she  vanished  up  the  broad  stairway. 

And,  in  their  own  fashion,  they  were  ;  for  her  presence  in 
the  house  would  have  made  it  necessary  to  observe  the 
days  of  ceremonial  mourning  for  their  uncle  much  more 
strictly  than  they  would  consider  it  necessary  to  observe 
them  without  her.  They  intended,  "  of  course,"  to  wear 
black  for  three  months,  and  to  give  up  every  thing  but 
"very  quiet"  afternoon  teas  and  walking-parties,  but,  as 
Lent  had,  by  a  happy  coincidence,  just  begun,  they  were 
quite  resigned  to  the  dispensation,  and  expected  to  utilize 
it  largely  in  improving  their  minds. 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  39 

It  seemed  to  Muriel's  over-excited  fancy  that  the  very 
sound  of  May's  voice,  when  she  came  with  the  gathering 
twilight,  was  soothing  and  comforting ;  and  May,  whose 
warm  heart  had  gone  out  to  Muriel  as  freely  as  it  went  out 
to  every  one  whose  sorrows  she  could  share  or  lighten,  was 
deeply  gratified  by  the  loving  reception  accorded  her. 

"  I  began  to  be  afraid  that  something  had  happened  to 
keep  you  from  coming,"  said  Muriel,  as  she  removed  May's 
bonnet  and  cloak,  and  drew  her  to  a  chair  in  front  of  the  fire. 

"  Yes,  I  was  sorry  to  be  so  late,"  replied  May,  "  but  I  was 
detained  after  school  by  two  unfortunates  who  had  missed 
some  of  their  lessons,  and  then  I  wanted  to  see  aunty  for  a 
few  minutes,  and  make  sure  that  she  was  all  right,  and  that 
Miss  Post  was  there." 

"  And  was  she  ? " 

"  Yes  ;  and  jubilant  over  some  sewing  from  a  new  cus- 
tomer, just  as  an  old  one  had  left  her,  and  because  her  arm 
has  been  '  almost  perfectly  well '  for  a  week  !  Aunty  will 
read  to  her  this  evening,  and  she  can  sew  nearly  twice  as 
fast,  she  says,  when  she  is  listening  to  reading,  as  she  can 
when  she  is  alone.  Dear  soul !  I  think  she's  about  the 
happiest  person  I  know.  She's  in  a  constant  state  of 
amazement  at  the  number  and  choice  quality  of  her  friends 
and  '  happenings,'  and  I'm  in  a  constant  state  of  amaze- 
ment at  her." 

"  Did  you  say  she  was  a  dressmaker  ? "  inquired  Muriel, 
abruptly. 

"  She  likes  plain  sewing  best,"  replied  May,  "  because,  as 
she  says,  '  there's  so  much  less  responsibility,'  but  she's  a 
very  good  dressmaker,  we  think — aunty  and  I.  She  makes 
all  our  gowns,  and  it's  amusing,  and  touching,  too,  to  see 
how  anxious  she  is  to  have  them  '  in  the  very  latest  style,' 
so  that  they  may  not  look  old-fashioned  before  they  are 
worn  out." 


40  IV A  YS  AND  MEANS. 

"  Will  you  please  ask  her  to  come  and  speak  with  me 
about  some  work,  as  soon  as  she  has  finished  what  she  is 
doing  now  ?  " 

"  Yes,  indeed  ;  I'll  be  delighted  to  do  it.  I  think  you'll 
like  her  sewing,  and  I  know  you'll  like  her.  Are  we  to 
have  our  dinner  here?  How  nice!  It's  so  much  cosier 
than  that  big  dining-room,  isn't  it  ?  " 

"  Yes  ;  I  can't  stand  that  great  empty  room,  just  yet,  any- 
how.  I  always  did  like  this  one  better  than  any  in  the  house, 
and  my  very  pleasantest  memories  of  grandpapa  are  all 
here.  I  would  apologize  to  any  body  but  you,  May,  for  the 
shabby  meal  I  gave  you  last  night.  Grandpapa  always 
liked  dinner  at  one  o'clock,  but  I  think  I  shall  prefer  it  at 
five  or  six,  it  seems  to  give  one  so  much  more  time,  some- 
how. So  it  is  a  '  real  dinner '  to-night,  and  I  only  hope 
you  are  hungry." 

"  I  am,  very  ;  and  I'm  glad  you  know  enough  not  to 
apologize  !  Aunty  and  I  laugh  sometimes  over  our  regard 
for  titles — we  do  in  reality  dine  at  half-past  six,  for  she 
can't  be  sure  of  getting  home  in  time  for  six  o'clock  dinner, 
and  we  neither  of  us  can  take  the  time  for  more  than  a 
lunch  in  the  middle  of  the  day,  but  we  always  call  it  sup- 
per, and  finish  with  a  cup  of  tea,  by  way  of  justifying  our- 
selves !  " 

The  very  respectable  old  colored  waiter,  who  had  lived 
with  Mr.  Hardcastle  since  Muriel  was  a  baby,  had  been 
noiselessly  bringing  in  dinner  while  the  girls  talked  ;  and 
arranging  it  on  the  round  table  at  one  end  of  the  room, 
which,  cosy  as  it  undoubtedly  was,  by  comparison  with  the 
dining  room,  was  by  no  means  small.  Margery  had  per- 
mitted Rogers  to  resume  his  duties  this  evening,  but  she 
hovered  about  the  door  in  a  manner  which  would  have  dis- 
turbed the  nerves  of  any  one  less  sedate  than  Rogers,  and 
the  dainty  little  dinner,  to  which  the  cousins  were  presently 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  4* 

summoned,  was  the  result  of  a  general  consultation  in 
which  Muriel  had  had  no  share,  beyond  saying  to  Margery 
that  she  would  like  to  have  a  dinner  at  six  o'clock  in  the 
library,  and  on  a  table  rather  larger  than  the  one  on  which 
tea  had  been  served  the  night  before. 

The  cook  and  housemaid  had  been  "  in  the  family " 
nearly  as  long  as  Rogers  had.  Mrs.  Hardcastle  had  never 
taken  any  active  interest  in  the  housekeeping,  and  had  left 
much  of  the  ordering  and  arranging  to  Margery,  under 
whose  wise  and  liberal  management  the  servants  had  been 
well  content,  and  after  Mrs.  Hardcastle's  death,  her  hus- 
band had  voluntarily  raised  Margery's  wages,*and  given 
her  entire  control  of  the  household.  It  was  most  fortu- 
nate for  Muriel,  from  one  point  of  view,  that  the  well-estab- 
lished routine  did  not  need  even  daily  supervision  from  her  ; 
she  was  a  boarder,  with  the  privileges  of  a  householder. 
But,  perhaps,  had  she  been  called  upon  to  take  the  reins  of 
government  in  earnest,  and  give  some  thought  to  the  man- 
agement of  the  house,  she  would  have  been  saved  a  good 
many  hours  of  loneliness  and  useless  regret. 

When  dinner  was  over,  the  fire  once  more  asserted  its 
attraction,  and  Muriel,  refusing  May's  entreaty  that  she 
should  lie  on  the  lounge,  drew  up  a  chair,  and  plunged  at 
once  into  the  talk  for  which  she  had  been  waiting  all  day. 

"  I  have  been  assailed  all  over  again  by  all  the  family, 
May,"  she  said,  "  about  staying  here.  They  all  seem  to 
think  that  my  intention  to  do  so  argues  incipient,  if  not 
actual,  insanity,  and  I'm  quite  anxious  to  hear  whether  or 
not  you  agree  with  them." 

"  No,  I  don't,  at  all,"  replied  May,  with  consoling  prompt- 
ness, "  and  aunty  doesn't,  either.  We  were  talking  about 
it,  in  the  few  minutes  I  spent  with  her  this  afternoon,  and 
she  said  she  should  think  you  very  foolish  if  you  consented, 
against  your  wishes,  to  turn  yourself  out  of  your  home. 


42  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

But  then,  if  I  tell  you  that  much,  perhaps  I  ought  to  tell 
you  the  rest.  We've  built  a  great  many  castles,  aunty  and 
I,  about  having  a  home  large  enough  for  us  to  entertain  at 
least  two  or  three  people  at  a  time.  I  fairly  ache  some- 
times, to  make  friends  with  some  of  those  poor,  tired-look- 
ing girls  in  the  shops,  and  the  gentle-looking,  sad-faced 
women  one  sees  in  the  street-cars,  carrying  home  great 
bundles  of  sewing.  Just  think  what  it  would  be  to  them 
to  be  taken,  only  for  a  few  days  or  a  week,  out  of  their  for- 
lorn lodging  and  boarding-places  into  a  real  home,  and  given 
a  pretty  room  to  sleep  in,  and  nice  things  to  eat,  and  little 
sprees  in  tKe  evenings  !  And  what  aunty  said  was  that  she 
never  knew  any  body  in  all  her  life,  who  had  fallen  upon 
such  an  'opportunity'  as  this  lovely  big  house  and  your 
money  have  made  for  you." 

"  If  one  could  only  see  just  one  side  of  a  thing,  and  not 
the  least  glimpse  of  the  other  !  "  said  Muriel,  with  a  per- 
plexed, anxious  look  in  her  eyes,  "  it  seems  to  me  that 
taking  people  that  way,  just  for  a  little  while,  and  then 
sending  them  back,  would  make  it  ten  times  worse  for  them 
by  contrast.  And  then,  no  matter  how  much  money  one 
has,  the  limit  is  reached  long,  long  before  one  comes  to  the 
last  of  the  people  who  need  help.  And  there's  no  telling 
where  to  begin.  My  head  fairly  whirls  when  I  think  of  it." 

"  It  is  confusing,"  assented  May,  "  but  when  I  was  a 
small  child,  I  read  a  fairy  story  which  made  a  lasting 
impression  on  my  mind,  and  perhaps  I  can  transfer  it  to 
yours.  I  don't  remember  the  details  at  all,  but  the  gist  ot 
it  was,  that  a  flock  of  fairy-geese  was  to  be  caught,  and  that 
the  boy  who  had  to  catch  them  succeeded  very  well  so  long 
as  he  tried  to  catch  the  nearest  one  first,  but  whenever  he 
reached  beyond  and  overlooked  that  nearest  one  he  utterly 
failed.  It  seems  to  apply  to  almost  every  thing  in  life, 
doesn't  it  ?  And  if  you  take  things  up  as  they  come  to 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  43 

you,  one  at  a  time,  it  will  not  seem  so  overwhelming,  I 
think.  It's  only  in  Wonderland  that  people  can  take  two 
or  three  days  at  once  for  warmth,  or  any  thing  else." 

"  Yes,  I  think  I  see  what  you  mean,  but  somehow  it 
doesn't  help  me.  Just  suppose  now,  for  an  instance,  that 
I  had  as  many  visitors  here  as  the  house  would  hold,  and  I 
were  to  come  upon  somebody  to  whom  such  a  visit  would 
mean  as  much  as  it  could  mean-*-I  couldn't  ask  any  body 
to  go  away,  and — " 

"  My  dear,  excuse  me  for  interrupting  you,"  said  May, 
energetically,  "  but  there  is  less  than  no  use  in  supposes  of 
that  kind,  and  nobody  is  called  upon  to  do  more  than  she 
can  do  !  I  don't  think  any  body  who  is  in  real  earnest  is 
ever  put  into  a  hole — there'sa  way  out,  and  a  way  of  find- 
ing it.  I  wish  you'd  let  aunty  come  and  talk  to  you.  She 
has  the  clearest  head,  and  the  warmest  heart  of  any  one  I 
know,  and  I  am  only  muddling  you  more  and  more,  instead 
of  helping  you  !  " 

"  No,  you  are  not ;  you  shall  not  say  that  !  But  I  should 
be  only  too  glad  to  let  Miss  Forsythe  come  and  talk  to  me, 
if  she  would  not  think  it  too  much  trouble." 

"  She  wouldn't  !  And  I  am  so  glad  you  have  stood 
firm  about  giving  up  your  home.  And  Muriel,  do  you 
mind  my  asking  a  question  ?  " 

"  1  mind  your  asking  that  question,  very  much  indeed — 
you  might  know  I  should — but  not  any  other." 

"  Thank  you  !  Do  you  mean  to  stay  here  quite  alone,  or 
shall  you  try  to  find  some  one  to  live  with  you  ?" 

Muriel  was  silent  for  several  minutes.  She  was  sorely 
tempted  to  pour  out  her  heart,  and  let  May  know  that  if 
she  and  her  aunt  would  come  there  to  live,  she,  Muriel, 
would  have  courage  for  any  thing.  But  somehow  she  felt 
that  to  give  utterance  to  her  wish  would  be  a  terrible  mis- 
take. A  sturdy  independence  brightened  May's  honest 


44  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

face,  and  had  impressed  itself  on  Muriel  from  the  first 
moment  of  their  meeting  ;  and  besides  that,  she  knew  from 
various  small  signs  and  tokens,  that  both  Miss  Forsythe 
and  her  niece  dearly  loved  their  small,  old-fashioned  home. 
So  she  repressed  herself  and  merely  said  : 

"  I  suppose  it  will  be  better  for  me  to  have  some  sort  of 
companion  for  various  reasons.  But  I  dread  the  idea.  I 
may  stumble  on  some  one  who  will  make  me  perfectly 
wretched,  and  yet  give  me  no  excuse  for  sending  her 
away  !  " 

"  Do  you  know  the  Raymonds  ? "  inquired  Marion, 
apropos  of  nothing,  apparently. 

"  No  !  you  must  remember  that  I  don't  know  any  body  ! 
I  never  could  summon  courage  to  ask  grandpapa's  permis- 
sion to  invite  any  one  to  the  house,  not  even  the  girls  I 
liked  best  at  school,  and  I  could  scarcely  be  more,  not  only 
friendless,  but  even  acquaintanceless,  if  I  had  been  brought 
up  in  a  convent." 

"  I  mean  that  you  shall  know  them,  then,"  said  May,  with 
decision.  "  You'd  like  them  ;  they  live  in  the  next  block  to 
us,  in  a  '  flat ' — two  sisters  and  a  younger  brother,  and  a 
delightful  old  aunt.  Her  name  isn't  Raymond — it's  Miss 
Sarah  Bowne,  though  every  body  who  knows  her  calls  her 
Aunt  Sally.  There  is  an  older  sister,  a  lovely  soul,  married 
to  that  young  Mr.  Osborne  who  is  considered  such  a  prom- 
ising artist,  and  living  in  a  suit  of  rooms  in  the  building 
where  he  has  his  studio.  You  must  know  them,  too — but 
that  isn't  the  point.  If  you  could  capture  Aunt  Sally,  your 
fortune  would  be  made,  but  I  don't  know  whether  Alice 
and  Marion  and  Dick  Raymond  would  have  you  arrested 
or  boycotted,  if  you  were  to  attempt  it  !  " 

"  Then  I'd  better  not  !  "  and  May  noted,  with  keen 
pleasure,  the  smile  which  accompanied  Muriel's  reply. 

"  I'm  not  so  sure  of  that.     They  don't  really  need  her 


IV 'A  YS  AND  MEANS.  45 

now,  as  they  did  a  few  years  ago,  when  they  first  came  to 
Boston,  and  I  can't  think  of  any  body  who  would  be  such  a 
clear  comfort  to  you,  and  such  a  magnificent  prime  minis- 
ter, so  to  speak,  as  Aunt  Sally  would  be  !  But  come,  I  am 
going  to  make  you  go  to  bed,  because  I  must,  and  we  can 
finish  our  talk  to-morrow  evening.  I  can  be  here  earlier 
than  I  was  this  evening,  I  hope." 

"  You're  sure  your  aunt  can  spare  you  for  a  few  nights 
more,  dear  ?  " 

"  Very  sure  !  I  am  always  quite  comfortable  about  her, 
when  Miss  Post  is  there.  And  you  don't  know  how  it 
pleases  me  to  have  you  \vant  me.  I  like  to  be  wanted  !  " 

"  Most  people  do,  I  fancy,"  said  Muriel,  rather  sadly, 
"  but  some  of  us  are  more  wantable  than  others." 

Muriel  felt  a  pang  of  self-reproach  as  she  realized  how 
pleasant  the  evening  had  been,  and  what  a  sense  of  free- 
dom was  already  stealing  over  her.  It  seemed  to  her  that 
she  must  be  utterly  heartless,  and  that  it  was  treason  to 
take  possession  of  all  the  good  things  left  her  by  her  grand- 
father, when  she  was  unable  to  grieve  for  his  death.  Some- 
thing of  this  she  expressed  to  May,  and  was  comforted  by 
the  latter's  quiet,  sensible  view  of  the  matter. 

And  another  night  of  sound  sleep  went  far  toward 
destroying  morbid  thoughts  and  fancies.  Her  strong 
young  frame  was  quickly  re-acting  from  the  strain  which 
had  been  put  upon  it,  and  Margery's  heart  rejoiced  as  she 
saw  the  color  returning  to  the  cheek  and  the  light  to  the 
eye  of  her  "  bairn." 


CHAPTER  III. 

FINDING. 

"  But  tire/  has  taught  me  this — if  hope's  a  cloud, 

Changing  its  color  till  it  melt  away, 
Fear  is  as  fanciful.     Our  hearts  are  cowed 
By  their  own  conjuring.     The  riper  day 
Finds  hopes  and  fears  but  battlements  of  snow, 

Wind-built,  sun-gilt,  which  one  night's  rain  lays  low  " 

— T.  W.  PARSONS. 

MURIEL  soon  saw,  or  fancied  she  saw,  that  May  was 
over-fatiguing  herself  in  her  effort  to  be  in  two 
places,  if  not  exactly  at  once,  yet  too  nearly  so  for  her  own 
comfort  and  convenience.  She  would  not  discuss  the  mat- 
ter with  May,  but  when,  at  the  end  of  three  or  four  days, 
she  found  that  Miss  Post  was  ready  to  begin  sewing  for  her, 
she  proceeded  promptly  to  carry  out  a  plan  which  she  had 
been  revolving  in  her  mind  ever  since  May's  first  talk  about 
the  seamstress,  and  which  seemed  to  her  to  be  her  first 
"  opportunity."  She  ascertained  that  Miss  Post  spent  her 
mornings  in  her  own  home,  and  of  this  May  had  given  her 
the  address,  not  suspecting  that  she  meant  to  do  more  than 
engage  the  seamstress  for  some  temporary  work.  But 
Muriel  had  a  larger  design  than  this,  and  although  it  pre- 
sented difficulties,  she  silenced  them  with  the  thought  that 
in  every  plan  and  arrangement  there  is  something  to  be 
"made  straight,"  in  order  to  its  carrying  out. 

Muriel  had  gone  through  a  sort  of  secondary  "  engage- 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  47 

ment  "  with  her  great-aunt  Matilda,  concerning  mourning. 
Mrs.  Hardcastle's  idea,  freely  imparted  to  her  niece,  was 
that,  in  view  of  "  all  she  owed  to  her  grandpapa,"  no  black 
could  be  too  "  dead,"  no  crape  too  costly,  or  profusely  used, 
as  a  mark  of  gratitude  and  respect,  if  not  of  love. 

"  My  dear  child,"  she  said,  "  you  really  must  have  a  veil. 
I  am  surprised  that  you  have  the  slightest  doubt  about  it ! 
The  best  English  crape,  of  course,  and  reaching  to  the  top 
of  the  lowest  ruffle  on  your  skirt.  After  the  first  Sunday  or 
two,  when  you  will  wear  it  over  your  face,  it  can  be  draped 
back  over  your  bonnet,  and  permanently  fastened  with  jet 
pins — dead  jet,  mind  ;  not  the  kind  that  shines.  And  if  I 
were  you,  I  would  have  the  basque  and  overskirt  of  your 
street-dress  entirely  covered  with  crape." 

Muriel  had  waited  patiently  for  the  end  of  the  sentence  to 
come,  and  when  at  last  it  came,  because  Mrs.  Hardcastle, 
being,  in  her  own  phrase,  "  a  little  stout,"  was  obliged  to 
pause  for  breath,  Muriel  said  quietly,  but  with  much  deci- 
sion : 

"  Aunt  Matilda,  grandpapa  spoke  to  me  one  day,  during 
his  illness,  about  this  very  thing.  He  said  he  hoped  nobody 
would  ever  wear  what  is  called  '  mourning  '  for  him  ;  that 
he  saw  no  reason  why  people  should  not  dress  in  quiet 
colors,  or  even  in  black,  after  a  death  in  the  family,  if  it 
made  them  any  more  comfortable  to  do  so,  but  that  he 
wished  all  the  '  parade  part  of  it,'  as  he  called  it,  could  be 
put  a  stop  to  forever.  And  you  must  see  that  I  cannot 
bring  myself  to  disregard  one  of  his  very  last  wishes.  I 
could  not,  even  if  it  were  something  very  hard  and  distaste- 
ful to  me,  as  I  will  not  pretend  this  is,  for  I  quite  agree 
with  him  about  it." 

"  But  Muriel !  "  said  Mrs.  Hardcastle,  looking  very  much 
shocked,  "  just  think  what  people  will  say  !  You  can't  go 
about  telling  every  one  what  you  have  just  told  me,  and 


48  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

they  wouldn't  understand  it,  if  you  were  to.  And,  my 
dear,  wherever  your  dear  grandfather  is,  it  is  surely  most 
unlikely  that  he  will  know  any  thing  of  what  is  going  on 
here." 

Muriel's  eyes  filled  with  tears.  Her  grandfather  had 
never  made  it  possible  for  her  to  love  him,  but  it  seemed  to 
her  that  she  came  nearer  doing  so  just  now  than  she  had 
ever  done  before  ;  and  she  answered  with  a  warmth  and 
decision  that  silenced  even  Mrs.  Hardcastle  on  that  sub- 
ject, and  in  Muriel's  presence.  At  home,  and  in  various 
other  places,  she  did  not  feel  called  upon  to  be  silent,  and, 
told  as  she  told  it,  the  story  really  sounded  quite  well. 

"  My  brother-in-law  had  a  prejudice  against  mourning," 
Mrs.  Hardcastle  would  say,  feelingly,  "  and  we  must  admit 
that  it  often  is  a  sad  travesty,  and  among  the  last  utterances 
which  Muriel  of  course  holds  most  sacred,  was  a  request 
that  it  should  not  be  put  on  for  him.  He  quite  saw  the 
suitableness  of  dressing  in  black  after  one  has  met  with 
such  a  loss  as  Muriel  has  suffered,  and  this  she  will  of 
course  do,  but  I  can  not  blame  the  dear  child  for  adhering 
so  rigidly  to  her  grandfather's  wishes,  when  she  owes  so 
much  to  him  !  " 

So  Muriel  was  left  in  peace  upon  this  subject,  and,  grad- 
ually, upon  many  others.  For  it  dawned  upon  Mrs.  Hard- 
castle, after  awhile,  that,  while  Muriel  listened  politely  to 
all  she  chose  to  say,  it  did  not  appear  to  have  any  effect 
upon  her,  beyond  that  of  frequent  annoyance. 

Mr.  Hardcastle  had  taken  his  turn  at  remonstrating  and 
suggesting,  and  Muriel  seeing  the  reasonableness  of  his 
wish  that  she  should  not  undertake  to  live  entirely  alone, 
had  assured  him  that  she  would  provide  herself  with  a 
companion  as  soon  as  she  could  find  some  one  even  mod- 
erately suitable.  But  when  he  suggested  that  she  should 
advertise  she  begged  to  be  excused,  and  he  was  too  glad  of 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  49 

the  concession  just  made,  as  he  thought,  to  his  wishes  to 
push  his  attempt  at  influencing  her  too  far. 

Muriel  left  the  house  for  the  first  time  since  the  day  of 
her  grandfather's  funeral,  when,  not  quite  a  week  afterward, 
she  went  to  see  Miss  Post.  Many  misgivings  had  attended 
her  concerning  the  step  she  was  about  to  take,  and  she  was 
very  glad  that  she  had  taken  no  one  into  her  confidence 
about  it,  and  so  was  still  free  to  change  her  mind  should 
she  wish  to  do  so.  But  she  did  not  wish  to,  after  a  few 
minutes'  talk  with  Miss  Post,  for  the  old  lady's  gentle,  dep- 
recating manner  and  fragile  appearance  entirely  won  Mu- 
riel's heart,  and  her  only  difficulty  now  was  a  fear  that  she 
might  state  her  proposal  awkwardly,  or  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  hurt  Miss  Post's  feelings. 

But  there  are  a  few  people  in  the  world  who  have  the 
blessed  gift  of  taking  no  offense  where  no  offense  is  meant, 
and  Miss  Post  was  among  the  number.  She  listened  with 
increasing  surprise,  as  Muriel  said  : 

"  I  wished  to  ask  if  you  would  be  willing  to  give  up  your 
room,  and  come  to  s'tay  permanently  with  me  at  four  dol- 
lars a  week.  My  house  is  very  large,  and  I  could  give  you 
a  nice,  sunny  bedroom  and  a  sitting-room,  quite  to  yourself. 
Your  meals  would  be  sent  up  to  the  sitting-room  so  that 
whenever  you  wished  to  have  a  friend  to  dinner  or  tea,  you 
would  be  free  from  interruption,  and  I  have  so  much  sew- 
ing to  be  done — for  I  do  not  like  to  sew  at  all,  and  never 
do  it  if  I  can  help  it — that  you  need  not  fear  not  having 
enough  to  do.  There  is  a  very  good  sewing  machine,  I 
believe,  or  you  could  sew  by  hand  if  you  preferred  it." 

"  But  I  do  not  think  I  should  be  worth  that  much  !  " 
replied  Miss  Post,  after  an  astonished  pause,  "  I  am  only 
paid  a  dollar  a  day  for  dressmaking,  and  I  can  very  seldom 
get  more  than  three  days'  work  in  one  week,  so  you  see 
that  leaves  me  four  days'  board,  and  the  rent  of  my  room 


5°  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

to  pay  all  the  time.  And  then,  sometimes,  when  my  arm 
is  very  bad,  I  am  obliged  to  stop  working  entirely  for  a 
day  or  two.  I  would  like  it  very  much — I  would  accept  at 
once,  if  I  thought  it  fair  to  you — but  I  do  not." 

The  gentle,  wistful  expression  of  her  face,  as  she  spoke, 
went  to  Muriel's  heart. 

"  Will  you  let  me  be  the  judge  of  what  your  services 
would  be  worth  to  me  ?  "  she  asked  gently,  adding,  as  Miss 
Post  remained  silent : 

"  You  have  been  very  highly  recommended  to  me,  and 
what  I  chiefly  want  is  some  one  in  whom  I  can  feel  entire 
confidence." 

"  If  you  are  sure,"  said  Miss  Post,  flushing  at  Muriel's 
words,  "  I  should  like  it  very,  very  much.  This  is  a  cold 
room — you  see  it  faces  north  ;  but  I  can  not  afford  to  pay 
any  more  rent  than  I  am  paying  here,  and  I  am  not  able  to 
find  a  better  room  for  that  ;  indeed,  few  that  I  have  looked 
at  are  so  good.  I  think,  if  I  were  in  a  sunny  room  all  the 
time,  that  I  should  be  disabled  much  less  often,  perhaps 
not  at  all,  after  a  while.  How  soon  would  you  wish  me  to 
come  ? " 

"  To-morrow,  or  the  next  day,  if  you  could  be  ready," 
answered  Muriel,  "  and  I  should  like  to  send  some  one  to 
help  you  pack  your  things,  and  dispose  of  any  you  do  not 
wish  to  keep.  Perhaps  you  would  like  to  bring  some  articles 
of  furniture  with  you.  If  there  is  any  thing  you  are 
fond  of,  and  do  not  wish  to  sell,  just  tell  me,  and  I  will  have 
space  left  for  it  in  your  rooms." 

"  You  are  very  kind — you  are  more  than  kind,"  said  Miss 
Post,  gratefully,  "  and  there  are  three  or  four  things  with 
which  I  should  hate  to  part  ;  that  armchair,  and  the  chest  of 
drawers,  and  the  little  work-table,  and  the  candlestand. 
They  were  my  mother's.  About  the  rest  of  the  furniture  I 
do  not  care  at  all,  and  I  will  just  send  it  to  be  sold.  You 


WAYS   AND  MEANS.  51 

see  I  have  heard  of  you,  too,  and  I  do  not  feel  afraid  to 
1  burn  my  ships.'  " 

"  You  need  not,  I  think,"  responded  Muriel,  greatly 
pleased  by  the  old  lady's  confiding  acceptance  of  the  bar- 
gain, and,  to  tell  the  truth,  with  having  so  easily  got  over 
the  part  of  the  arrangement  which  she  had  dreaded,  that 
about  the  private  table. 

She  had  thought  the  matter  over  very  carefully,  and  had 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  would  be  better  and  more 
conducive  to  the  comfort  of  both  to  settle  it  beforehand  in 
this  way,  but  she  had  been  afraid  that  Miss  Post  would 
misunderstand  her,  and  construe  what  she  said  into  a  slight. 
Just  now,  while  she  was  quite  alone,  she  would  have  pre- 
ferred having  almost  any  one  at  the  table  with  her  to  the 
dreariness  of  solitude,  but  she  foresaw  that  the  time  might 
come  when  even  so  gentle  and  unobtrusive  a  companion 
might  be  an  embarrassment. 

Fortunately  for  her  project,  Miss  Post  was  not  "thin- 
skinned  ; "  indeed,  she  would  have  felt  the  constraint  quite 
as  much  as  Muriel  would,  for  in  most  of  the  places  where 
she  worked  her  meals  were  sent  to  the  sewing-room,  and 
she  had  grown  accustomed  to  eating  alone,  from  this,  and 
from  the  many  days  passed  in  the  solitude  of  her  room.  So 
it  was  settled  that,  with  Margery's  help,  she  was  to  be  ready 
the  next  day  but  one,  and  Muriel  went  home  well  satisfied 
with  her  day's  work.  She  had  made  a  beginning,  and  "  it 
is  the  first  step  that  costs." 

She  told  May  at  dinner  of  what  she  had  done,  and  was 
greatly  cheered  by  her  cousin's  warm  approval  and  hearty 
interest. 

"  You  must  take  your  release  as  soon  as  Miss  Post  is 
established  here,  dear  May,"  said  Muriel,  "  for  I  know  how 
much  your  aunt  must  miss  you,  and  I  will  not  let  you  stay 
when  there  is  no  real  necessity  for  it." 


52  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

"  If  you  steal  my  substitute,  I  suppose  I  must  take  you 
at  your  word,"  said  May,  smiling,  "  but  I  shall  hate  to 
leave  you.  I  do  wish  I  could  catch  Aunt  Sally  for  you  !  " 

"  Tell  me  more  about  Aunt  Sally,  please,"  replied  Muriel, 
in  whom,  each  day,  new  interest,  and  even  excitement  in 
the  life  before  her  awakened  more  and  more.  "  I  have 
heard  you  mention  her  so  often  since  we  have  been  together, 
that  I  am  growing  quite  curious  concerning  her,  and  even 
beginning  to  think  seriously  of  trying  to  '  capture  '  her,  as 
you  suggest.  Now,  you  are  going  to  lie  on  the  lounge — oh 
yes,  you  are  !  You  may  have  '  all  the  pillys,'  if  you  like,  to 
bring  your  head  up  to  the  level  of  mine,  and  I  will  sit  in 
this  low  chair,  but  you  shall  put  your  feet  up,  and  take  a 
thorough  rest,  or  else  I  will  not  say  another  word  to  you,  or 
let  you  say  one  to  me  !  There — it  quite  rests  me  to  look 
at  you.  Now  you  can  tell  me  all  about  Aunt  Sally,  please." 

May  had  laughingly  yielded  to  Muriel's  despotic  ar- 
rangement of  her,  for  she  was  indeed  very  tired,  and,  being 
herself  the  care-taker  at  home,  care  and  comforting  were 
doubly  grateful  to  her. 

"  I  hardly  know  where  to  begin,"  she  said,  "  for  Aunt 
Sally  is  one  of  my  specialties,  too,  and  I  am  afraid  of  bor- 
ing you,  if  I  once  get  fairly  started  with  her  for  my  text." 

"  '  Begin  at  the  beginning  and  go  on  till  you  come  to  the 
end,' "  quoted  Muriel,  "  there's  a  sound  piece  of  advice 
fresh  from  Wonderland." 

"  Very  well,  then — on  your  own  head  be  it,  if  you  are 
bored  !  I  suppose  the  beginning  will  be  when  I  first  saw 
her,  although  I  did  not  know  who  she  was  then.  I  shall 
never  forget  the  tableau — it  was  extremely  'vivant!'  I 
was  walking  along  Commonwealth  Avenue  one  bright 
afternoon,  and  the  world  and  his  wife  were  walking  there, 
too,  for  it  was  one  of  the  first  bright  days  of  spring.  I 
met  several  people  who  were  smiling  in  an  amused  sort  of 


"  Aunt  Sally  was  holding  a  big,  clumsy  boy  of  twelve  or  thirteen  by  the  arm." 

P.  53. 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  53 

way,  ind  then  I  came  upon  the  tableau.  Aunt  Sally  was 
standing  very  erect,  holding  a  big,  clumsy  boy  of  twelve  or 
thirteen  by  the  arm,  and  in  front  of  them  was  a  little  fellow 
about  half  the  size  of  the  other,  rubbing  his  knuckles  into 
his  eyes  and  sobbing.  I  couldn't  help  stopping  to  look  and 
listen,  and  Aunt  Sally  was  just  saying  : 

"  '  —  if  you'd  take  a  boy  of  your  size,  but  to  pretend  to  be 
fighting  with  a  little  mite  like  that,  when  in  reality  you  were, 
only  thrashing  him,  proves  you  a  liar  as  well  as  a  coward  ! ' 

" '  He  sassed  me  ! '  said  the  big  boy,  sullenly. 

" '  And  suppose  he  did  ? '  answered  Aunt  Sally,  severely. 
" '  If  his  sass  was  true  you've  no  right  to  complain,  and  if 
it  wasn't,  you  need  not  mind  it.'  Then,  with  a  ludicrously 
sudden  change  of  tone,  she  said,  very  kindly  : 

" '  Now,  my  boy,  you  know  that  in  this  country  every  body 
has  the  chance  of  being  president  some  day,  and  the  very 
first  step  toward  governing  other  people,  or  being  thought 
worthy  to  do  it,  is  to  govern  yourself.  I  often  see  you,  and 
I  often  think  what  a  good,  big,  strong  body  you've  been 
given,  and  how  much  you  ought  to  do  in  the  world,  but 
you'll  not  do  one  thing  that's  worth  while  until,  with  God's 
help,  you  take  yourself  in  hand  and  do  battle  with  your 
own  badness.  Will  you  try?' 

"  I  can't  remember  her  exact  words,  but  what  she  said 
was  something  like  this,  and  I  thought  how  she  was  wast- 
ing her  ammunition  !  But  you  ought  to  have  seen  that 
great,  lumpish  fellow  straighten  up,  and  lift  his  eyes  to 
her  face.  It  made  me  think  of  a  light  coming  into  a  dark 
room. 

"  '  Nobody  never  talked  to  me  like  that  before,'  he  said, 
'  and  I  don't  know  as  I  could  do  it,  but  if  you'd  let  me 
bring  you  a  paper  sometimes — not  to  pay  for  it,  I  don't 
mean,  but  if  I've  one  left  over — and  you'd  sort  of  go  over 
it  again  to  me,  may  be  I  could  try.  And  I'm  sorry  I 


54  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

whopped  him  ;  it  wasn't  no  lie,  what  he  said.     Shake  hands, 
will  you,  Billy  ? ' 

"  1  began  to  feel  like  an  eavesdropper,  and  so,  to  use  an 
expressive  piece  of  slang,  '  I  came  away  then,"  but  I 
thought  how  I  should  like  to  know  that  old  lady  !  She  was 
rather  tall,  and  very  straight-backed,  with  piercing  dark- 
gray  eyes,  as  I  found  afterward — I  thought  they  were  black, 
while  she  was  talking  to  the  boy — and  nearly  white  hair, 
arranged  in  a  round  curl  on  each  side  of  her  face.  She  had 
taken  a  step  or  two  forward  in  her  eagerness,  and  I  saw 
that  she  was  quite  lame,  but  I  never  saw  any  one  who  so 
impressed  me  with  a  sense  of  her  energy  ;  there  was  a  sort 
of  abounding  life  in  every  motion  she  made.  So  you  may 
think  how  delighted  I  was  when  I  met  her,  not  two  weeks 
after  witnessing  her  engagement  with  the  newsboy.  One  of 
my  friends  asked  me  to  go  with  her  to  call  on  the  Ray- 
monds, who  had  just  come  to  Boston,  she  said,  from  a 
delightful  old  home  in  the  country,  and  had  gone  to  house- 
keeping in  a  very  nice  flat  in  a  private  house,  with  a  very 
entertaining  old  '  cousin,  or  aunt,  or  something'  to  matron- 
ize  them,  and  this  ambiguous  person  proved,  of  course,  to 
be  Aunt  Sally.  I  have  liked  her  more  and  more,  every  day 
that  I  have  known  her  since  then,  and  I  flatter  myself  that 
she  likes  me  a  little,  for  she  is  the  soul  of  sincerity,  and  I 
know  she  would  not  pretend  to  if  she  didn't.  It  seems  that 
these  Raymonds  were  left,  after  their  father's  and  mother's 
death,  without  enough  money  to  carry  on  the  place,  and  yet 
they  did  not  wish  to  sell  it,  for  the  boy  was  only  waiting  till 
he  should  be  old  enough  to  take  charge  of  the  farm  ;  but  in 
the  meantime,  it  was  necessary  for  the  older  girls  to  do 
something,  and  for  the  younger  girl  and  the  boy  to  finish 
their  education.  So  they  hit  upon  this  plan  of  keeping 
house  in  a  few  rooms,  as  being  cheaper  than  boarding,  and 
persuaded  Aunt  Sally  to  take  the  helm.  Alice,  the  oldest 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  55 

girl,  spent  the  first  winter  with  her  uncle  and  aunt,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Hamilton — she  was  not  in  very  good  health,  I  believe, 
but  I've  always  had  a  little  uncharitable  corner  in  my  heart 
about  it — and  Rose  found  a  very  good  situation  in  a  private 
school,  and  Marion  was  taken  there  as  a  pupil,  with  an 
arrangement  that  she  should  teach  afterward,  and  she's 
doing  it  now.  It  was— and  is — the  most  charming  place  to 
visit.  I  always  go  there  if  I  feel  low  in  my  mind,  or  ar.y 
thing  is  worrying  me,  and  somehow  it  doesn't  seem  worth 
worrying  over,  when  I've  been  there  a  little  while.  The 
three  sisters  are  very  unlike.  Rose,  who  is  married,  you 
know,  to  that  nice,  clever  Mr.  Osborne,  the  artist,  is  a  sweet, 
gentle,  spirited  creature,  with  a  great  deal  of  sympathy  for 
every  body,  and  Alice  is  gentle,  too,  and  perhaps  more  intel- 
lectual than  Rose,  but  she  always  looks  to  me  as  if  she  were 
inclined  to  fret  over  trifles,  and  dislike  to  be  disturbed  in 
any  way.  Marion  is  best  described  by  the  word  square — 
not  that  she's  square-looking,  for  she  isn't  ;  she's  by  far  the 
prettiest  of  the  three,  now,  but  she's  so  incorruptibly 
honest !  I  don't  think  I  ever  knew  any  one  so  sensitive 
about  truth.  And  yet  she  is  not  given  to  judging  other 
people — she  is  rather  inclined  to  the  mistake  of  imagining 
that  every  one  comes  up  to  her  own  standard.  She's  the 
most  guileless  creature  !  The  boy  is  something  like  her  ; 
he's  a  nice  fellow,  and  seems  to  be  managing  to  grow  up 
without  inflicting  the  proverbial  '  awkward  age '  on  every 
body  connected  with  him.  Indeed,  I  often  wish  that  some 
of  the  grown-ups  I  could  mention  were  half  so  chivalrous 
as  he  is.  He's  about  fifteen,  I  think,  but  very  tall  and 
strong  for  his  age,  and  he  hates  city  life  cordially.  It  shows 
how  strong  his  sisters'  influence  over  him  is,  that  he  has 
promised  to  go  to  school  until  he  is  at  least  eighteen,  before 
he  takes  entire  charge  of  the  farm,  but  he  spends  all  his 
vacations  there  now,  and  he  and  Marion  have  a  great  deal 


56  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

of  talk  about  what  they  will  do  when  he  is  eighteen,  and 
settles  there  permanently.  They  always  spend  their  sum- 
mers there,  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Osborne  go  with  them,  and 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Craig,  too,  for  part  of  the  summer.  Mrs. 
Craig  is  their  first  cousin  ;  she  was  Fanny  Hamilton.  And 
while  they  are  there,  Aunt  Sally  and  Marion  and  Rose  'put 
up'  incredible  quantities  of  every  thing,  and  manage  so 
beautifully  that  they  really  have  only  to  buy  their  meat  and 
groceries  in  the  winter,  and  yet  they  keep  the  nicest  table. 
I  said  that  Aunt  Sally  was  so  lame,  the  first  time  I  saw  her, 
but  she's  much  better  now.  Dr.  Osborne,  the  girls'  uncle, 
who  lives  not  far  from  Dovedale — that's  the  name  of  their 
country- place — took  her  in  hand  the  first  summer  they  had 
her  there,  and  nearly  cured  her.  He  says  he  could  quite 
cure  her  if  she  had  only  one  lazy  bone  in  her  body  !  But  I 
am  not  going  to  wear  you  out  talking  about  her  any  more — 
she's  my  eighth  wonder  of  the  world,  aunty  says,  and  an 
inexhaustible  subject." 

"  You're  not  wearing  me  out  yet,"  replied  Muriel,  as 
May  paused.  "  I'm  deeply  interested  in  all  you've  said, 
and  my  mind  has  only  wandered  to  the  extent  of  wondering 
whether  these  charming  people  would  be  willing  to  come 
and  see  me  and  be  my  friends.  Do  you  think  they  would, 
if  you  were  to  tell  them  how  much  I  want  them  to  ? " 

"  I  know  they  would,"  answered  May,  confidently, 
"  though  I  will  confess,"  she  added,  laughing  a  little,  "  that 
they  would  take  more  immediate  pleasure  in  doing  so,  if 
you  were  a  destitute  stranger,  without  any  friends  or  rela- 
tives in  Boston,  and  they  thought  they  could  put  you  in  the 
way  of  finding  congenial  employment  !  " 

A  shadow  swept  over  Muriel's  face. 

"  If  they  only  knew — "  she  said,  and  made  a  pause  of 
which  Mc-y  hastened  to  take  advantage  by  saying  brightly  : 

"  I  think,  if  you  will  let  me,  I  will  bring  Aunt  Sally  by 


IV A  YS  AND  MEANS.  57 

herself,  first  of  all,  for  if  she  should  strike  you  as  she 
struck  me,  and  you  should  really  wish  to  have  her  come 
and  live  with  you,  it  would  be  easier  for  you  to  make 
friends  with  her,  and  enlist  her  sympathy,  if  you  had  her 
all  to  yourself." 

"  I  don't  believe  she'd  be  willing  to  leave  her  nieces 
and  nephew,  and  the  home  she's  so  fond  of,  to  come 
to  a  perfect  stranger,"  said  Muriel,  doubtfully,  "  and 
to  tell  the  truth,  I  should  hardly  have  the  face  to  ask 
her!" 

"  Of  course,  you  would  not  ask  her  at  the  very  first  inter- 
view, dear,  but  if  you  knew  her  as  well  as  I  think  I  do,  you 
would  also  know  that,  were  she  once  to  believe  it  her  duty 
to  come  and  live  with  you,  the  fact  of  having  to  give  up 
her  pleasure  to  do  it  would  not  have  a  feather's  weight 
against  you,  but  would,  on  the  other  hand,  be  a  strong 
factor  in  your  favor  !  I  sometimes  think  that  if  Aunt  Sally 
had  been  a  man,  she  would  have  been  a  sort  of  pioneer 
missionary.  She'd  have  gone  to  the  extreme  west,  most 
probably,  and  taken  up  land,  and  planted  a  school-house, 
and  a  church,  and  a  sewing-society,  and  then,  when  every 
thing  was  fairly  going,  and  likely  to  prosper,  she'd  have 
'  moved  on  '  to  fresh  fields  and  pastures  new.  I  can  fancy 
her  civilizing  and  enlightening  a  whole  territory,  advancing 
serenely  through  a  howling  wilderness,  and  conquering  all 
before  her.  And  her  very  first  secular  instruction  would 
always  be  in  the  art  and  mystery  of  making  home-made 
yeast.  I  do  believe  she  thinks  that  good  bread  is  only  sec- 
ond to  good  morals  and  manners.  Her  motto  ought  to  be  : 
'  Let  me  make  the  bread  of  a  nation,  and  I  care  not  who 
makes  its  laws  ! ' ' 

"  Now,  May,  don't  set  me  to  work  at  that  vexed  question 
again,  for  pity's  sake  !  It  has  tormented  me  quite  enough, 
foi  it  will  not  stay  settled  !  I  thqught,  after  our  talk  about 


5 8  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

it  the  other  evening,  that  it  would  never  worry  me  again, 
but  it's  a  perfect  jack-in-the-box  !  " 

"  Then  shut  the  lid,  and  fasten  it  down,  my  dear,  and  you 
are  at  least  safe  for  the  present." 

"  But  isn't  that  cowardly  ?  " 

"  That  depends.  Courage  sometimes  consists,  I  think, 
in  acknowledging  oneself  a  coward,  and  taking  precautions 
accordingly.  You  know  the  suggestion  that,  instead  of 
stopping  to  battle  with  a  specific  temptation,  we  should  just 
try  to  rise  to  a  higher  level,  where  the  temptation  has  no 
place  !  So  we  will  not  attack  your  vexed  question  all  over 
again  just  now,  if  you  please  ;  I  must  confess  to  being 
sleepy,  humiliating  as  the  confession  is,  and  though  I  some- 
how feel  as  if  we  were  each  to  start  on  a  long  journey  day 
after  to-morrow  morning,  in  opposite  directions,  and  so 
ought  to  say  a  great  deal  more  to  each  other  to-night." 

"  Oh,  please  don't  say  that,"  exclaimed  Muriel,  with  a 
sort  of  terror,  "  it's  hard  enough  to  give  you  up,  without 
any  such  horrid  suggestion  as  that — and  we  will  see  each 
other  very  often,  will  we  not  ?  " 

"  Indeed,  we  will!  "  replied  May,  cordially,  "  I  mean  to 
come  and  dine  and  sleep  with  you  at  least  once  a  week, 
'  until  further  notice,'  if  you  will  lend  Miss  Post  to  aunty, 
for  those  evenings." 

"  I'll  try  to  spare  her  !  And  I'm  glad  you  said  that ;  it 
reminds  me  of  something  I  wished  to  ask  you.  You  know 
Miss  Post  is  to  be  installed  day  after  to-morrow  evening, 
and  I  mean  to  ask  her  to  take  dinner  with  me  the  first 
night — it  will  make  her  feel  more  at  home,  I  think,  and  I 
want  you  and  Miss  Forsythe  to  come  too.  Will  you  ?  And 
do  you  think  she  will  ?  " 

"  I  will,  with  much  pleasure,  and  I  have  no  hesitation  in 
promising  for  her  ;  we're  sufficiently  intimate  for  me  to 
take  that  liberty.  And  you  were  going  to  show  me  Miss 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  59 

Post's  rooms,  and  we've  talked  the  whole  evening  away, 
and  I  hear  Margery  coughing  about  the  hall,  with  an  admo- 
nition in  every  cough  !  Well,  I  can  see  the  rooms  day  after 
to-morrow  evening,  and  see  Miss  Post's  delight  and  sur- 
prise, too.  She  will  be  lost  in  wonder  over  every  single 
arrangement  you  have  made  for  her  comfort,  dear  soul  ! 
She's  a  case  in  point,  Muriel — just  look  at  all  she  hasn't, 
and — but  I  will  not  raise  the  lid  again  !  Come."  And 
May  marched  her  cousin  off  to  bed  with  a  great  show  of 
authority. 

They  quite  agreed  that  it  was  "  absurd  "  to  talk  about  part- 
ing the  next  morning  but  one,  yet  May  felt  very  regretful, 
and  Muriel  very  desolate  when  the  good-byes  had  been  said. 
For  the  frequent  meetings  which  they  promised  themselves 
would  not  be  quite  the  same  as  these  few  days  of  close 
companionship  had  been,  and  they  both  knew  it." 

Muriel  pleased  herself,  for  awhile,  with  arranging  in  her 
mind  what  she  would  send  May,  very  soon — certain  books 
and  music  of  which  they  had  spoken  ;  a  chair  like  the  one 
which  stood  in  front  of  the  library  hearth  ;  flowers  every 
two  or  three  days  ;  and  then  came  sorrowfully  the  irresist- 
ible conclusion  that,  at  least,  for  the  present,  she  must 
deny  herself  this  gratification.  Their  intimacy  had  sprung 
up  so  suddenly,  that  a  little  going  back  would  be  necessary, 
before  all  was  made  even.  May  might  take  the  alarm,  if 
Muriel  should  be  incautiously  generous,  and  draw  back, 
even  now,  after  coming  so  near  ;  for,  sturdy  and  healthy  as 
her  common-sense  evidently  was,  it  might  not  be  proof 
against  the  imputation  of  interested  motives  in  "  culti- 
vating" Muriel's  acquaintance  and  friendship.  And  she 
would,  Muriel  knew,  appreciate  the  abstinence  from  any 
thing  that  would  place  her  in  an  embarrassing  position,  and 
not  ascribe  it  to  any  mean  or  sordid  motive,  and  this  was  a 
great  comfort.  So  she  turned  from  her  vain  imaginings  to 


6o  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

the  practical  pleasure  of  overseeing  the  arrangement  of 
Miss  Post's  rooms.  Margery  had  put  them  in  spotless 
order,  and  it  only  remained  to  have  removed  the  articles  of 
furniture  which  would  be  in  the  way  when  the  few  treasures 
possessed  by  the  new  resident  should  arrive,  and  to  fill  one 
of  the  windows  with  flowers  from  a  neighboring  florist's. 
The  order  for  these  Margery  was  to  leave  on  her  way  to 
help  the  dressmaker  with  her  final  preparations. 

They  came  promptly,  and  it  was  while  she  was  arranging 
them,  with  keen  pleasure,  in  the  deep  window-seat  of  the 
sunniest  window,  that  Muriel  suddenly  realized  that  the 
conservatory,  for  which  she  had  timidly  and  vainly  peti- 
tioned a  year  ago,  was  now  within  her  power,  and  as  soon 
as  she  was  satisfied  that  the  rooms  were  as  attractive  as 
they  could,  at  such  short  notice,  be  made,  she  went  back 
to  the  library  and  beguiled  the  rest  of  the  day  in  drawing 
plans  and  making  estimates,  and  was  agreeably  surprised 
by  the  flight  of  time,  when  Margery  came  to  tell  her  that 
Miss  Post  had  arrived,  and  was  crying  ! 

In  great  consternation  Muriel  flew  to  the  rescue,  but 
she  was  quickly  reassured  as  to  the  state  of  Miss  Post's 
feelings. 

The  contrast  between  the  barren  poverty  of  the  room 
she  had  left,  and  the  prettiness  and  cheerfulness  of  her  new 
abode  had  overcome  her,  but  only  for  a  moment,  and  by 
the  time  Muriel  had  knocked  and  been  admitted,  the  tears 
had  been  resolutely  banished,  and  May's  prophecy  was 
quickly  fulfilled — not  a  detail  of  the  arrangement  of  the  two 
rooms  escaped  recognition  and  heartfelt  gratitude. 

Muriel  often  thought,  in  after  days  and  years,  of  the 
lasting  effect  which  this  reception  of  her  first  independent 
effort  to  give  pleasure  had.  It  saved  her  from  discour- 
agement many  a  time,  when  she  seemed  to  have  failed,  or 
when  a  rude  rebuff  took  the  place  of  gratitude,  and  made 


WA  YS  AA'D  MEANS.  6 1 

her  realize,  as  she  came  to  know  more  of  the  world  in  which 
she  lived,  how  the  "  rough  places  "  had  been  "  made  plain  " 
for  her  untried  feet. 

Margery  was  beaming  with  delight  at  the  awakening  of 
interest  and  pleasure  in  her  "  bairn's  "  heart,  and  made  the 
ample  excuse  of  a  cup  of  tea  for  Miss  Post,  to  get  the  bene- 
fit of  the  happy  change. 

"  I'm  so  glad  you  thought  of  that,  Margery,"  said  Muriel, 
gratefully.  "  I  was  just  going  to  ask  you,"  she  added, 
turning  to  Miss  Post,  "to  dine  with  me  in  the  library  this 
evening,  for  Miss  Forsythe  and  May  are  coming,  and  I 
don't  belive  you  stopped  to  eat  your  dinner  to-day,  you 
must  have  been  so  busy." 

"  I  had  a  substantial  lunch,"  said  Miss  Post,  apologeti- 
cally, "  but  it  will  be  none  the  less  pleasant  to  dine  with  you 
and  my  dear  friends  this  first  evening.  And  I  will  not  try 
to  tell  you  how  happy  you  have  made  me,  Miss  Douglas — 
happier  than  I  ever  hoped  to  be  in  this  world.  I  never 
dreamed  of  having  such  a  home  as  this." 

"  I  am  very  glad  you  are  pleased,"  said  Muriel,  simply. 
"We  tried  to  make  it  pleasant  for  you,  Margery  and  I. 
But  now  I  am  going  to  leave  you,  for  when  you  have  had 
your  tea  you  must  lie  down  and  rest  until  dinner  time.  We 
shall  not  dine  until  seven,  because  Miss  Forsythe  could  not 
come  any  earlier,  May  said.  So  good-by  for  the  present." 

Muriel  long  remembered  the  evening  which  followed,  as 
one  does  remember  the  bright  places  in  life,  sometimes 
using  them  to  illuminate  the  dark  ones.  It  was  the  first 
lifting  of  the  heavy  strain  which  had  been  imposed  upon 
her,  not  only  during  her  grandfather's  illness,  and  since  his 
death,  but  for  months  and  years  before,  when,  unconsciously 
to  herself,  her  mind  and  character  had  been  warped  by  the 
unnatural  life  of  her  home.  She  found  herself  talking 
freely  to  Miss  Forsythe  of  her  vague  plans  and  ideas,  and 


62  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

the  difficulties  which  seemed  to  spring  up,  like  ill  weeds, 
about  every  project,  until  she  was  almost  afraid  to  venture 
upon  any  thing,  for  fear  of  doing  more  harm  than  good. 

"  I  would  not  encourage  that  spirit,  my  dear,  whatever 
you  do,"  said  Miss  Forsythe.  "  It  would  be  better  for  you  to 
make  all  sorts  of  blunders  at  first  than  to  sink  into  the 
would-be-irresponsible  state  of  so  many  rich  people.  We 
are  all  inclined  to  fly  to  extremes,  because  they  seem  the 
shortest  way  out  of  our  difficulties,  but  they  are  not,  really. 
And  the  trouble  wilh  all  anxious  people,  or  so  it  seems  to  me, 
is  perfectly  useless  anticipation.  We  are  seldom,  if  ever,  at 
a  loss  to  know  what  we  should  do  to-day,  but  we  fret 
because  we  foresee  trouble  for  to-morrow,  or  the  next  day. 
For  you,  just  now,  a  little  waiting  and  finding  out  seems 
the  best  thing.  I  am  far  from  wishing  to  meddle — " 

"  Oh,  please  don't  even  suggest  that  you  could  !  "  inter- 
rupted Muriel,  eagerly. 

"  I  will  not,  then.  But  I  was  about  to  suggest  that  you 
should  begin  by  having  a  good  talk  with  your  lawyer,  and 
gaining  a  thorough,  practical  knowledge  of  all  your  affairs. 
Then  you  will  know  just  where  you  stand,  and  how  far  out 
you  may  venture." 

"  I  don't  know  the  first  thing  about  business  !  "  exclaimed 
Muriel,  in  dismay. 

"  All  the  more  reason  for  proceeding  to  know  without 
further  loss  of  time  !  "  replied  Miss  Forsythe,  inexorably,  but 
with  a  very  kindly  smile.  "  It  will  save  you  a  vast  amount 
of  future  time  and  trouble  to  do  this,  and  be  good  for  you, 
besides.  I  think  May  told  me  that  old  Mr.  Keith  had  taken 
charge  of  all  your  grandfather's  business,  and  still  had 
charge  of  yours  ?  His  firm  is  noted  for  honesty  and  fair 
dealing,  and  you  would  run  no  danger,  so  far  as  any  one 
£an  see,  of  getting  into  trouble,  should  you  leave  every 
jthing  to  them,  and  just  ask  for  your  money  as  you  want  it ; 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  63 

but  do  you  not  think,  yourself,  that  it  would  be  much  more 
satisfactory,  both  to  them  and  to  you,  to  begin  with  a  clear 
knowledge  of  your  affairs  ?  For  one  thing,  if  there  is  any 
real  estate,  you  should  know  all  about  that — whether 
there  are  houses  on  it,  and  what  sort  of  tenants  you  have, 
if  there  are.  That,  it  seems  to  me,  is  of  the  first  im- 
portance." 

"  I  never  thought  of  that,"  said  Muriel,  brightening  as 
she  spoke  ;  "  that  would  really  be  interesting,  and  would 
make  up,  perhaps,  for  having  to  listen  to  so  much  that 
would  seem  stupid.  Thank  you,  dear  Miss  Forsythe,  for  all 
you  have  said.  May  told  me  you  could  help  me.  I  suppose 
the  first  thing  will  be  to  write  a  note  to  Mr.  Keith,  and 
ask  him  to  come  and  have  a  talk  with  me.  I  will  do  that 
to-morrow.  I  had  been  thinking  a  little  of  trying  to  find 
some  nice,  bright  woman,  with  an  arithmetical  head,  for  a 
sort  of  clerk,  b.it  I  am  afraid  you  think  that  I  might  be  my 
own  clerk.  Do  you  ?  " 

"  For  the  present  I  do,"  replied  Miss  Forsythe,  with  that 
unhesitating  decision  which  was  so  comfortable  to  Muriel, 
so  surprising,  and  at  times  almost  disconcerting,  to  gentle 
little  Miss  Post.  "  After  awhile,"  she  added,  "  when  you 
are  thoroughly  conversant  with  your  own  affairs,  and  have 
work  in  hand  of  more  value  and  importance,  you  may  find 
some  such  person  a  necessity,  but  that  has  nothing  to  do 
with  to-day." 

"  I  wish,"  said  Muriel,  wistfully,  "  that  I  could  my  keep 
head  as  clear  as  you  keep  yours  !  It  must  make  every 
thing  go  so  much  more  easily.  Did  you  always  do  it,  or 
did  you  have  to  learn  how  ?" 

"  I  had  to  learn  how,  very  decidedly,"  said  Miss  For- 
sythe, "  and  I  do  not  by  any  means  keep  it  as  clear  yet  as  I 
would  like  to.  But  I  have  learned,  I  hope,  the  uselessness 
of  forecasting.  I  don't  mean  that  one  should  be  heedless 


64  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

and  careless  about  the  future — far  from  that ;  but  merely 
that,  having  done  whatever  seems  for  the  best  to-day,  we 
should  simply  and  reverently  leave  the  result  in  God's 
hands.  I  often  long  to  give  a  very  simple  recipe  to  anx- 
ious people — let  them  write  out,  over  night,  what  they 
expect  to  have  happen  to  them  the  next  day,  going  as  much 
into  detail  as  they  can  ;  and  then,  the  next  evening  let 
them  write  what  really  did  happen.  I  do  not  mean  that 
it  will,  necessarily,  be  either  better  or  worse  than  their 
anticipations,  but  only  that  it  will  be  so  utterly  different 
nine  times  out  of  ten,  as  to  prove  the  futility  of  fore- 
casting." 

Muriel  did  not  reply,  because  she  felt  incredulous,  but 
she  made  up  her  mind  to  try  the  "  recipe  "  at  once,  and 
that  night  after  her  guests  had  left  her,  and  Miss  Post  had 
said  good-night,  and  several  other  things,  she  sat  down  at 
the  writing-table,  found  a  piece  of  blank  paper,  and  then, 
smiling  a  little  at  the  suggestion  her  hunt  for  it  had  given, 
she  wrote  : 

"  I  expect  to  breakfast  at  eight  o'clock  to-morrow  morn- 
ing ;  to  go  into  town  about  nine,  and  do  some  shopping  ; 
to  be  back,  certainly,  in  time  for  a  one  o'clock  lunch  ;  to 
write  a  note  to  Mr.  Keith,  asking  him  to  come  as  soon  as 
he  can  and  let  me  have  a  talk  with  him  ;  to  dine  alone  at 
six  o'clock  ;  to  spend  the  evening  writing  letters  and  read- 
ing." 

Muriel  read  this  over,  and  then  smiled  again,  as  she 
thought  of  merely  affixing  "  Fulfilled  "  to  it  the  next  even- 
ing, and  handing  it  to  Miss  Forsythe  at  the  first  opportu- 
nity. She  did  not  at  all  intend  to  give  way  to  vain  fore- 
bodings, but  she  thought  Miss  Forsythe's  zeal  had  carried 
her  a  little  too  far.  Margery  knocked  and  entered  softly 
while  she  was  still  pondering  over  the  programme,  but 
her  gentle  :  "  Are  you  not  coming  away  to  bed,  Miss 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  65 

Muriel?  It's  long  past  ten,"  somehow  annoyed  Muriel 
a  little.  Was  she  never  to  be  free,  in  small  matters, 
to  follow  out  her  own  inclinations  ?  So  she  answered 
kindly,  but  perhaps  rather  more  decidedly  than  was  nec- 
essary : 

"  Not  yet,  Margery.  I  had  a  nap  this  afternoon,  you 
know,  and  I'm  not  at  all  sleepy.  Don't  wait  for  me,  please. 
You  can  shut  the  door  between  the  rooms,  and  I  will  open 
it  softly  when  I  am  ready  for  bed." 

Margery  lingered  a  moment  as  if  about  to  speak  again, 
but  seemed  to  change  her  mind. 

"  Good  night  then,  my  deary,"  she  said,  and  closed  the 
door  upon  herself  as  softly  as  she  had  opened  it. 

The  fire  was  still  bright  upon  the  hearth,  and  the  read- 
ing-lamp, scrupulously  cared  for  by  Margery,  who  would 
trust  it  to  no  one  else,  threw  a  circle  of  mellow  light  around 
it.  For  the  first  time  since  her  grandfather's  death 
Muriel  felt  like  reading,  and  took  from  the  low  revolving 
bookcase,  which  stood  near  her  chair,  a  book  which  she  had 
begun  some  weeks  before,  and  never  finished. 

It  was  one  of  the  modern  controversial  books,  of  the  mak- 
ing of  which  the  wise  King  might  have  prophesied,  when  he 
said  there  was  "  no  end,"  but  it  was  cleverly  written,  and 
aroused  Muriel's  thinking  powers  in  a  way  which  she  found 
very  pleasant  ;  so  she  read  on,  quite  unconscious  of  the  pas- 
sage of  time,  until  she  had  finished  the  last  page,  and  then, 
glancing  up  at  the  noiseless  mantle-clock — for  her  grand- 
father never  would  have  a  striking  clock  in  any  of  the 
rooms  he  occupied — she  was  startled  to  find  that  it  was 
nearly  one.  The  gas  was  always  left  burning,  slightly 
turned  down, in  both  the  upper  and  lower  halls  at  night,  so 
she  had  only  to  put  out  her  reading-lamp  and  hasten  up- 
stairs, trying  to  shake  off  the  feeling  that  this  unwonted 
liberty-taking  with  time  would  bring  a  reprimand  upon 


66  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

her  in  the  morning.  The  door  between  her  room  and 
Margery's  was  shut, according  to  her  order,  and  she  opened 
it  with  burglar-like  caution,  when  she  was  ready  for  bed, 
listened  a  moment,  and  then,  assured  by  the  darkness  and 
silence  that  she  had  not  disturbed  her  faithful  attendant, 
was  asleep  almost  as  soon  as -her  head  touched  the  pillow. 

She  had  given  no  orders  about  being  called  in  the  morn- 
ing, for  she  had  of  late  been  waking  unnecessarily  and 
annoyingly  early,  so  that  it  was  only  when  she  was  nearly 
dressed,  the  next  morning,  that  she  chanced  to  look  at  her 
watch,  and  discovered  that  it  was  half-past  nine  o'clock  ! 
She  had  already  made  the  discovery  that  it  was  a  rainy 
day,  and  now  she  made  a  third — that  her  shopping  expedi- 
tion could  very  well  wait  for  pleasanter  weather.  She 
remembered  that  there  was  a  small  stock  of  paper  and 
envelopes  in  the  little  old  writing-desk  which  stood  on  a 
table  in  her  room,  and  for  the  different  materials  which  were 
to  provide  Miss  Post  with  sewing,  she  could  also  afford  to 
wait. 

She  mildly  reproached  Margery  for  not  having  called 
her— to  be  not  quite  so  mildly  reproached,  in  turn,  for  hav- 
ing sat  up  half  the  night! 

"  Now  Margery  !  "  she  answered,  laughing  a  little,  "  you 
don't  know  how  long  I  sat  up,  for  you  were  sound  asleep 
when  I  came  to  bed — I  know  you  were." 

"  That  may  very  well  be,"  admitted  Margery,  gravely, 
"  it  was  high  time  for  folk  to  be  asleep,  but  when  I  went  to 
fill  the  lamp  this  morning, it  was  near  empty  !  " 

Muriel  halted  a  moment  between  amusement  and  vexa- 
tion, but  fortunately  the  former  conquered.  After  all,  she 
thought,  it  would  be  rather  forlorn  to  be  absolutely  free — 
to  have  nobody  care  for  one's  concerns  but  just  oneself. 
And  certainly,  Margery  had  not  allowed  her  displeasure  to 
affect  her  darling's  comfort  so  far  as  breakfast  was  con- 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  67 

cerned.  Muriel  dawdled  so  long  over  the  tempting  little 
meal,  that  the  bell  rang  not  more  than  five  minutes  after  she 
had  finished,  and  the  tray  had  been  carried  from  the  library 
and  Margery  came  to  say  that  "  Miss  Hardcastle  was  in  the 
parlor." 

Muriel  hesitated  ;  she  had  arranged  in  her  own  mind 
that  she  would  see  only  her  intimates — present  and  pros- 
pective— in  the  library,  but  the  parlor  had  always  seemed  a 
dreary  room  to  her  ;  it  was  heated  solely  by  the  furnace,  the 
windows  were  hung  with  heavy,  light-excluding  draperies, 
and  to-day,  with  pouring  rain  and  leaden  clouds  outside, 
it  would  be  intolerable.  And  she  liked  Julia  Hardcastle, 
so — 

"  Show  her  in  here,  please,  Margery,"  she  said,  and  in  a 
moment  Julia's  bright,  agreeable  face  made  Muriel  glad  of 
her  decision. 

"  My  family  voted  me  crazy,  without  a  single  dissenting 
voice,  for  coming  out  in  such  weather,  even  to  see  you," 
said  Julia,  as  she  shook  Muriel's  proffered  hand  with  a 
hearty  friendliness,  which  Muriel  found  very  pleasant.  "  But 
I  am  always  seized  with  a  spirit  of  restlessness  on  stormy 
days,  and  find  that  there  is  some  imperative  reason  for 
going  out,  so  this  morning  I  said  I  -knew  no  one  else  would 
be  rash  enough  to  brave  the  pelting  of  the  pitiless  for  your 
sake,  and  that  I  knew  you  would  mope  yourself  to  death, 
and  felt  that  it  was  my  mission  to  keep  you  from  doing  it, 
so  here  I  am  !  Are  you  glad  to  see  me,  or  were  you  count- 
ing on  a  nice  quiet  day  all  to  yourself  ? " 

"  Indeed,  I  am  very  glad,"  said  Muriel  warmly,  "  and  now 
you  are  just  going  to  take  off  your  hat  and  that  wet  cloak, 
and  stay  to  lunch  with  me.  Please  don't  say  you  can  not !  " 

"  I  had  no  idea  of  saying  it  !  This  room  is  much  more 
cheerful  than  the  sewing-room  at  home  from  which  I  fled — 
we  are  having  a  dressmaker  in  the  house,  for  our  sins — and 


68  IV A  YS  AND  MEANS. 

I  will  confess  that  I  told  mamma  not  to  be  uneasy  if  I  did 
not  appear  until  somewhere  near  dinner  time.  Oh,  thank 
you,  Margery — it  is  not  so  very  wet,  after  all,  you  see, 
Muriel." 

She  handed  her  cloak  and  hat  to  Margery,  who  had 
appeared  in  answer  to  Muriel's  ring,  and  stood  waiting 
orders,  and  well  pleased  that  her  "  bairn  "  was  not  to  be 
left  alone  this  dismal  day. 

"  Miss  Hardcastle  will  stay  to  lunch  with  me,  Margery," 
said  Muriel,  in  a  voice  so  much  more  cheerful  than  it  had 
been  an. hour  ago  that  Margery  at  once  resolved  to  reward 
Miss  Hardcastle  with  a  very  good  lunch  indeed  ! 

"  Oh,  do  you  have  it  in  here  ?  How  charming  !  "  said 
Julia,  as  Rogers  went  about  his  duty  of  laying  the  little 
table  in  his  usual  silent  and  deft  manner. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Muriel.  "  The  dining-room  seemed  so 
dreadfully  large,  just  at  first,  and  now  I  have  grown  used 
to  eating  here,  and  I  like  it  so  much  better  that  I  shall  not 
make  any  change  for  the  present.  I  always  did  like  this 
room  better  than  any  other  in  the  house  ;  I  think,  partly, 
because  it  was  here  that  grandpapa  first  noticed  me  and 
made  friends  with  me." 

And  she  told  Julia  the  story  of  her  introduction  to  the 
room. 

Julia  laughed  heartily. 

"  What  a  little  limb  you  must  have  been  !  "  she  said,  "  I 
wish  you  had  not  been  obliged  to  sober  down  so  completely 
afterward.  But  I  sincerely  hope  that  the  quality,  whatever 
It  was,  that  sent  you  sliding  down  the  balusters  that  day, 
has  only  been  scotched,  not  killed,  and  that  I  shall  see  man- 
ifestations of  it  before  long  !  " 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Muriel,  meditatively.  "  Sometimes 
I  think  one  way,  and  sometimes  the  other.  And  I  do 
believe  that  if  I  had  had  a  chance,  I  should  have  been  a 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS,  69 

very  bad  little  girl  ;  so  perhaps  it  was  all  for  the  best,  as  the 
old  lady  in  the  tract  said  about  every  thing.  Come,  lunch 
is  ready — but  I  think  a  cup  of  coffee  would  be  nice,  don't 
you  ?  " 

"  Yes,  I  think  so  ;  but,  my  dear  Muriel,  you  know  it's 
Lent,  and  I  am  pledged  against  tea  and  coffee  until  Easter 
morning  ;  but  don't,  if  you  please,  let  that  hinder  you  from 
having  it  ;  I  can  enjoy  the  smell,  which  is  often  really  better 
than  the  taste." 

"  Oh,  no,  I  don't  care  about  it  at  all.  I  thought  I  remem- 
bered that  you  liked  it.  It  is  very  good  of  you  to  give  it 
up,  I  think.  Do  you  always  give  up  something  ?  " 

"  I  have,  for  the  past  few  years — since  I  have  been  con- 
firmed. But  I  am  not  at  all  clear  about  the  goodness.  Mr. 
Percival — our  minister,  you  know — asks  us  all  to  give  up 
something  during  Lent,  and  I  chose  tea  and  coffee  for  two 
reasons  :  I  like  them  better  than  I  like  any  thing  to  eat,  and 
the  giving  them  up,  even  for  not  quite  six  weeks,  has  such 
a  charming  effect  upon  my  complexion  that  I  only  wish  I 
had  sufficient  strength  of  mind  to  do  it  altogether  !  " 

Muriel  was  silent.  She  could  not  think  of  any  adequate 
answer  to  this  exceedingly  frank  declaration,  that  would 
not,  under  the  circumstances,  be  impolite  ;  and  Julia,  fortu- 
nately, did  not  appear  to  notice  the  silence,  but  chatted  on, 
most  amusingly,  glancing  from  one  subject  to  another  with 
a  rapidity  and  versatility  which  seemed  astonishing  to  her 
quieter  cousin.  Lunch  was  finished,  the  table  removed, 
and  still  Julia  stayed  on,  honestly  enjoying  herself,  for 
Muriel,  under  the  unwonted  influence,  had  brightened  very 
much,  and,  if  not  taking  a  fair  share  in  the  lively  talk,  was 
at  least  a  very  evidently  appreciative  listener.  The  gather- 
ing dusk  at  length  seemed  to  suggest  to  Julia  that  dinner 
time  must  be  approaching,  and  she  rose  to  go.  Muriel  felt 
a  sudden  shrinking  from  the  loneliness  and  silence  of  a 


70  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

solitary  evening  in  the  library,  which,  by  contrast  with  the 
cheerful  afternoon,  seemed  unendurable,  and  she  laid  a 
detaining  hand  on  Julia's  arm  as  she  said: 

"  Oh,  why  must  you  go  ?  Why  can't  you  just  stay  all 
night  with  me  ?  " 

The  sincerity  of  the  invitation  was  so  evident  that  Julia 
looked  genuinely  pleased. 

"  Why,  I  haven't  my  tooth-brush,  my  dear,"  she  answered, 
laughing,  "  and  besides,  although  my  family,  I  am  thankful 
to  say,  is  not  unduly  solicitous,  it  might  consider  itself 
called  upon  to  be  alarmed,  should  I  not  appear  by  bedtime." 

"  But  if  you  will  write  aunt  Matilda  a  note,  and  ask  for 
what  you  wish  for  the  night,  including  your  tooth-brush, 
Rogers  shall  take  it  as  soon  as  he  has  brought  in  dinner. 
Margery  can  wait  on  us." 

"  I  have  no  answer  to  that  argument,  because  I  really 
would  like  to  stay,"  said  Julia,  "if  I  wouldn't,  I  could  in- 
vent an  unanswerable  answer  !  Do  you  know,  Muriel,  I 
think  you  are  very  much  to  be  envied  ?  Fancy  being  mon- 
arch of  all  you  survey,  in  a  great  castle  like  this,  with 
nothing  to  do  but  order  your  servants  about,  like  that  man 
in  the  Bible  !  What  good  times  you  ought  to  have,  after  a 
little  while,  when  you  begin  to  go  into  society  again  !" 

"If  you  knew  how  lonely — ,"  began  Muriel;  then  she 
stopped  herself.  Where  was  the  use  ?  So  she  added, 
more  lightly  : 

"  There  is  no  '  again  '  about  it,  for  you  know  I  never  have 
been  into  '  society '  at  all.  And,  from  what  little  I  have  seen 
of  the  outside  of  it,  I  am  not  sure  that  I  shall  consider  the 
game  worth  the  candle.  It  somehow  strikes  me  as  being  a 
good  deal  more  candle  than  game." 

"  That  depends,"  replied  Julia,  "  and  Muriel,  you  mustn't, 
whatever  you  do  or  don't  do,  give  yourself  the  name  of 
being  odd  or  eccentric.  The  eyes  of  Boston  are  upon  you, 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  7 1 

or  will  be,  as  soon  as  you  emerge,  and  even  if  you  don't  ex- 
actly pine  for  it,  you  must  act  as  if  you  did,  to  a  certain 
extent." 

A  lively  argument  followed,  which  lasted  through  dinner, 
and  well  into  the  evening ;  it  was  perfectly  good-humored 
on  both  sides,  and  left  each  of  them  more  firmly  convinced 
of  the  justice  of  her  cause  than  it  had  found  her.  Julia 
herself  proposed  going  to  bed  soon  after  ten.  She  was  not 
minded  to  lose  any  of  the  benefits  of  her  observance  of 
Lent,  and  she  intended,  beside,  to  go  to  an  early  service 
next  morning,  but  for  this  she  begged  Muriel  not  to  disturb 
herself ;  their  own  breakfast  hour  was  from  eight  to  nine, 
arid  she  could  easily,  she  said,  reach  home  in  time  for  break- 
fast. Muriel  had  the  <*ood  ense  to  accede  to  this  arrange- 
ment, thereby  raising  herself  still  more  in  Julia's  estimation, 
and  the  cousins  parted  with  exceedingly  friendly  good-nights 
at  the  door  of  one  of  the  stately  "  spare  rooms."  It  had  not 
occurred  to  either  of  them,  as  Muriel  remembered  afterward, 
with  a  smile,  that  they  might  sleep  together.  And  it  was 
only  when  Muriel  was  alone  in  her  own  room  that  she  re- 
membered her  "programme,"  and  read  it  with  some  amuse- 
ment, but  not  very  thorough  conviction.  "  One  swallow 
does  not  make  a  summer,"  and  she  thought  that  to-day  had 
been  merely  an  exception.  It  was  only  after  repeated  trials 
that  she  allowed  herself  to  be  convinced,  and  this  very  fact 
made  her  all  the  more  thoroughly  a  convert  to  Miss  Forsythe's 
view  of  the  matter,  when  s'..e  did  yield.  The  difference  was 
not  always  so  striking,  but  in  one  way  or  another,  it  was 
always  there. 

The  note  to  Mr.  Keith  was  written  and  posted  early 
the  next  morning,  asking  him  to  come  that  afternoon, 
should  he  find  it  convenient  to  do  so.  She  felt  very  much 
as  if  she  were  making  an  appointment  with  the  dentist, 
and  that  the  sooner  she  could  get  it  over  the  better. 
Still,  she  sternly  determined  that  she  would  not  allow  this 


72  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

feeling  to  influence  her  judgment  or  conduct.  She  had 
seen,  more  and  more,  the  sensibleness  of  Miss  Forsythe's 
advice,  and  fully  meant  to  carry  it  out.  But  how  fervently 
she  wished  that  the  gay,  handsome  face  which  smiled  at  her 
from  her  treasured  miniature  of  her  father  were  beside  her 
now  in  life  and  reality,  so  that  she  might,  with  a  clear  con- 
science, feel  rid  of  of  all  responsibility. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

A  MORAL. 

"  I  would  not  have  the  restless  will 

That  hurries  to  and  fro, 
Seeking  for  some  great  thing  to  do, 

Or  secret  thing  to  know  ; 
I  would  be  dealt  with  as  a  child, 

And  guided  where  to  go." 

MURIEL  had,  in  her  note,  requested  Mr.  Keith  to  send 
her  word  should  it  not  suit  him  to  see  her  that  after- 
noon, and  she  received  her  letters  at  lunch-time,  with  a 
cowardly  hope  that  a  postponement  of  the  interview  might 
be  among  them,  but  it  was  not.  There  was  an  affectionate 
letter  from  the  schoolfellow  with  whom  she  had  been  most 
intimate,  Lina  Fairfax,  a  note  from  Julia  containing  a  prom- 
ised address,  and  a  few  words  of  cordial  pleasure  concern- 
ing her  impromptu  visit,  with  a  hope  that  it  would  soon  be 
returned,  and  another  from  May  Douglas,  to  say  that,  should 
Muriel  have  no  engagement  for  that  evening,  she,  May, 
would  like  to  bring  "  Aunt  Sally  "  to  call. 

"  I  will  not  tell  you  to  try  to  make  a  very  good  impres- 
sion in  furtherance  of  our  dark  design,"  added  May,  "  for  I 
know  what  a  dreadfully  '  contrariwise '  effect  such  counsels 
usually  have,  and  I  have  an  idea,  moreover,  that  you  and 
Aunt  Sally  are  a  pair  of  long-sundered  kindred  spirits,  and 
that  it  will  be  a  sort  of  '  Where-hast-thou-stayed-so-long  ' 
meeting,  when  you  do  meet.  She  is  deeply  interested  in 


74  IV A  YS  AND  MEANS. 

you  and  your  opportunities,  already  ;  more,  I  am  afraid  I 
must  confess,  in  the  latter  than  the  former,  but  we  will  soon 
change  all  that." 

"  So  I  am  to  have  two  ordeals  in  one  day  !"  said  Muriel 
to  herself,  as  she  finished  reading  May's  note,  "  I  almost 
wish — but  no,  I  am  not  going  to  make  an  ordeal  of  that 
nice  Miss  Bowne's  visit ;  I  shall  try  to  fancy  that  it  is  just 
as  May  says,  and  that  we  shall  feel  well  acquainted  with- 
out any  preliminary  stiffness.  Even  if  she  should  not 
care  to  come  to  live  with  me — and  I  am  sure  I  don't  see  why 
she  should  ! — she  would  be  a  great  help  just  to  have  for  a 
friend,  and  to  go  to  whenever  I  am  puzzled  and  in  doubt. 
But  that,  I  am  afraid,  will  be  more  than  half  my  time.  I  do 
wish  one  might  make  a  sort  of  chess-board  arrangement  of 
one's  life,  the  lines  perfectly  clear,  and  the  divisions  definite 
and  unmistakable.  It  would  be  rather  stupid,  perhaps, 
but  so  much  safer  and  easier  than  it  is  now." 

Muriel  buried  herself  in  the  big  chair,  and  pursued  this 
train  of  thought,  until  the  subdued  voice  of  Rogers,  as  he 
called  her  attention  to  the  fact  that  he  was,  in  the  most  cor- 
rect manner,  presenting  her  with  a  card  upon  a  salver, 
interrupted  her  meditation.  The  card  was  inscribed  : 
"  Mr.  Douglas  Keith,"  and  she  laid  it  down  with  a  passing 
thought  of  the  coincidence  of  names,  and  a  confused  idea 
that  old  Mr.  Keith's  first  name  had  always,  heretofore, 
been  Angus.  Her  bewilderment  increased,  when,  as  she 
entered  the  long  parlor,  or  drawing-room,  as  her  aunt 
invariably  called  it,  a  man  who  was,  certainly,  not  more 
than  thirty-five  years  old,  rose  from  the  easiest  of  the  rather 
uneasy  chairs,  and  came  forward  to  meet  her.  She  fancied 
she  saw  the  glimmer  of  a  smile,  gone  almost  before  it  came, 
on  the  very  good-looking  face  to  which  she  raised  her  puz- 
zled eyes,  and  this  at  once  restored  her  to  self-possession, 
and,  in  some  mysterious  way,  to  the  recollection,  as  well, 


IV A  YS  AND  MEANS.  75 

that  Mr.  Keith  had  recently  taken  his  two  sons  into  partner- 
ship with  himself — this,  no  doubt,  was  one  of  them,  and  a 
little  feeling  of  displeasure  at  the  substitution  crossed  her 
mind,  and,  quite  possibly,  her  candid  face,  for  Mr.  Keith, 
after  a  courtly  bow,  opened  the  proceedings  with  : 

"  Miss  Douglas,  I  believe  ?  Permit  me  to  apologize  for 
having  come  in  my  father's  place.  He  is  deeply  engaged 
to-day,  and  will  be  for  some  days  to  come,  upon  a  very 
important  case,  and  as  I  was  thoroughly  conversant  with  the 
business  connected  with  Mr.  Hardcastle's  estate,  and  as  he 
thought  you  might  have  something  of  importance  to  com- 
municate, I  ventured,  at  his  request,  to  substitute  him — but 
only  to  assure  you,  Miss  Douglas,  should  you  prefer  to  wait 
until  early  next  week,  that  he  will  be  quite  at  your  service 
then.  He  regrets  very  much  that  he  should  be  obliged  to 
disregard  your  first  summons." 

The  ease  and  fluency  with  which  this  somewhat  long  sen- 
tence was  delivered,  seemed  to  deprive  it  of  half  its  length, 
and  Muriel,felt  a  little  amused  wonder  as  to  whether  it  were 
"  extrumpery,  like  most  triles  of  patience,"  or  the  result  of 
careful  and  successful  composition  and  study. 

She  hesitated  a  moment  before  replying — a  hesitation 
which  called  forth  again  that  ghost  of  a  smile — for  it  surely 
was  no  more.  Here  was  her  reprieve,  should  she  choose  to 
take  it,  but,  if  what  this  serious-looking  member  of  the 
firm  said  were  true,  and  it  could  scarcely  be  less,  why 
should  she  ?  Four  days  more  of  uncertainty  did  not  look 
attractive. 

"  Thank  you,"  she  said,  far  more  gravely  than  she  had 
intended  to  speak,  "  you  are  very  kind,  but,  if  you  are  at 
leisure,  and  quite  conversant,  as  you  say,  with  my  grand- 
father's affairs,  there  is  no  reason  why  I  should  trouble  your 
father.  What  I  wished  was,  to  be  told  every  thing  that, 
were  1  a  man,  it  would  be  thought  needful  for  me  to  know 


76  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

about  the  fortune  which  I  have  inherited.  I  understand 
that  there  is  some  real  estate,  and  I  think,  from  one  or  two 
things  which  my  grandfather  said  during  his  last  illness, 
that  he  had  contemplated  buying  more,  and  had  even  begun 
the  arrangement  when  he  became  too  ill  to  attend  further  to 
it.  I  will  try  not  to  give  you  unnecessary  trouble,  but  I  feel 
that  I  must  have  a  clear  understanding  of  my  affairs  before 
I  can  act,  or  even  plan,  intelligently." 

Accepting  the  theory  that  "man  is  like  an  onion,"  encom- 
passed with  many  concentric  layers,  but  with  a  savage  for 
the  core,  it  may  be  stated  here  that  Mr.  Douglas  Keith 
whistled.  But  his  firm-set  lips  remained  closed,  and  the 
whistle  was  entirely  inaudible.  He  bowed  gravely,  as  he 
replied  : 

"  I  shall  be  happy  to  furnish  you  with  the  fullest  informa- 
tion. But  will  you  allow  me  to  suggest  that  a  memorandum- 
book  might  prove  of  assistance?  You  will  scarcely  find  it 
possible,  I  am  afraid,  to  remember  all  the  details  with  which 
I  shall  be  obliged  to  burden  you,  without  some  such  help, 
for  I  will  confess  that,  thoroughly  as  I  have  posted  myself 
upon  the  main  facts,  I  must  ask  your  indulgence,  concern- 
ing some  minor  details,  until  I  can  return  to  the  office,  and 
look  over  the  papers  once  more.  Your  grandfather  was 
strongly  impressed  with  the  wisdom  of  not  investing  a  large 
sum  in  any  one  place,  and  this  will  add  somewhat,  I  am 
afraid,  to  the  trial  of  your  patience,  for  which  I  must  apolo- 
gize beforehand." 

"  It  is  I  who  should  apologize,"  said  Muriel,  with  a  bright 
little  smile,  "  for  giving  you  what  may  appear  to  you  to  be 
very  needless  trouble  " — he  bowed  a  courteous  disclaimer — 
"  but  I  think,  I  hope  that  this  will,  in  the  long  run,  be  the 
easiest  way  both  for  you  and  myself.  Surely  it  must  be — 
to  know  exactly  where  one  stands,  and  take  no  step  in  the 
dark,  instead  of  going  blindly  on  until  one  strikes  a  wall  ! 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  77 

Perhaps  we  had  better  come  to  the  library,  for  I  shall  take 
your  advice,  of  course,  about  making  memoranda." 

She  rose  as  she  spoke,  with  the  "  springy  motion  "  which 
should  be  so  natural  to  all  young  things,  but  which  struck  Mr. 
Keith  as  a  decided  novelty,  and  led  the  way  to  the  library. 
The  writing  table  had  been  cleared  of  the  piles  of  paper  and 
memorandum-books  with  which  Mr.  Hardcastle  had  never 
permitted  any  interference,  and  Muriel,  arming  herself  with 
a  very  new  and  long  lead  pencil,  and  the  small  blank-book  in 
which  she  had  already  begun  to  record  her  household  ex- 
penses, sat  gravely  down  at  one  side  of  the  table,  while  Mr. 
Keith,  with  equal  gravity,  drew  a  chair  to  the  other. 

He  began  his  statement  and  explanations  at  once,  without 
preface  or  preamble,  and  made  every  thing  so  clear,  that 
Muriel  had  no  difficulty  whatever,  as  a  general  thing,  in  fol- 
lowing him.  Where  she  did  not  at  first  understand,  she 
questioned  until  she  did,  and  he  could  hot  help  seeing  that 
the  notes  were  many,  but  very  short.  Her  questions  were 
especially  minute  about  the  real  estate,  which,  she  found, 
consisted  chiefly  of  a  block  of  small  shops  on  a  small  street. 
About  half  these  were  newly  built ;  the  rest  had  been  built 
some  ten  or  twelve  years,  and  were  beginning  to  call  rather 
too  frequently,  Mr.  Keith  said,  for  repairs.  The  purchase 
which  Mr.  Hardcastle  had  been  about  to  make,  was  of  an- 
other block  in  the  heart  of  the  city,  almost  valueless,  so  far 
as  the  houses  upon  it  were  concerned,  but  in  a  business  neigh- 
borhood, where  property  showed  signs  of  rising.  Mr.  Hard- 
castle had  intended,  Mr.  Keith  thought,  to  destroy  the  un- 
sightly houses  which  now  occupied  the  block,  and  build  a 
row  of  shops  or  warehouses  for  renting.  His  father,  he 
said,  had  instructed  him  to  say  that,  should  Miss  Douglas 
so  desire,  they  would  carry  out  this  design  at  once,  as  the 
investment  promised  well,  and  the  price  of  the  block  would 
probably  rise  before  long. 


7  8  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

Muriel  knew  that  her  grandfather  had  regarded  the  elder 
Mr.  Keith  as  a  man  of  strict  integrity  and  unusually  sound 
judgment,  and  she  felt  no  hesitation  about  leaving  the  de- 
cision, in  such  matters  as  this,  entirely  in  his  hands.  His 
son  was  evidently  much  pleased  with  her  few  words  to  this 
effect,  and  the  interview  ended  with  a  very  friendly  feeling 
on  both  sides.  Muriel  had  asked  no  foolish  questions  ;  she 
had  listened  with  unwavering  attention,  and,  as  her  remarks 
proved,  with  perfect  intelligence,  while  Mr.  Keith,  inspired, 
perhaps,  by  the  quality  of  his  auditor,  had  acquitted  him- 
self well.  Muriel  held  out  her  hand  with  a  cordial  good-will, 
when  the  session  was  over,  and  spoke  a  few  words  of  very 
sincere  gratitude  for  her  instructor's  patience  and  lucidity, 
and  he,  instead  of  replying,  as  she  was  half  afraid  he  would, 
with  a  fulsome  compliment  to  the  intellectual  powers  of  his 
hearer,  said  simply  that  it  gave  him  much  pleasure  to  have 
satisfied  her,  and  then,  with  the  first  hesitation  he  had  shown, 
asked  if  he  might  be  allowed  to  visit  her. 

"  I  know,"  he  added,  quickly,  as  if  fearing  that,  should 
she  reply  immediately,  it  would  be  in  the  negative,  "that 
you  are,  of  course,  neither  visiting  nor  receiving  general 
visitors,  just  now,  but  my  father  and  your  grandfather  were 
very  old  friends,  and  1  am  presumptuous  enough  to  hope 
that  you  will  make  an  exception  in  my  favor,  and  allow  me 
to  render  you  any  and  every  service  which  a  brother  or 
cousin  might  be  permitted  to  offer." 

"  You  are  very  kind,"  said  Muriel,  simply  and  gratefully, 
"  and  it  will  give  me  pleasure  to  see  you  sometimes,  but  do 
not  think  me  rude  if  I  ask  you  to  wait  for  a  few  weeks.  It 
is  all  so  new.  I  feel  as  if  I  had  been  suddenly  thrust  into 
a  foreign  country,  and  were  learning  the  language." 

She  paused, at  a  loss  for  words  which  would  rightly  ex- 
press her  meaning,  and  his  quiet,  "  I  think  I  understand," 
pleased  her  more  than  any  thing  he  could  have  said,  so  that 


I  WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  79 

when  he  added,  presently,  "  I  will  wait  your  permission  to 
visit  you,  but  if,  in  the  meantime,  you  find  that  I  can  render 
you  any  service,  I  trust  you  will  let  me  know,"  she  answered, 
earnestly. 

«  I  will— indeed  I  will  !  " 

And  Mr.  Keith  thereupon  took  his  departure,  and  Muriel, 
standing  where  he  had  left  her,  in  front  of  the  fire,  smiled 
to  herself  at  the  impression  left  by  her  first  "  ordeal." 

"  He  seems  so  strong,"  she  meditated,  "  and  yet  so  very 
kind  and  gentle.  And  he  did  not  say  a  single  one  of  the 
foolish  things  which  some  people  would  have  said.  I  think 
I  should  have  liked  a  brother  just  like  him  ;  or  no,  not  just 
like  ;  that  little  smile,  which  he  did  not  think  I  saw,  was 
not  at  all  becoming  to  him,  and  seemed  somehow  out  of 
harmony.  Now,  I  wonder  if  it  was  an  indication  of  another 
side  of  his  character,  which  he  keeps,  or  thinks  he  keeps, 
quite  out  of  sight  ?  " 

Muriel's  speculation  on  this  point  was  cut  short  by  the 
announcement  of  dinner,  before  she  had  arrived  at  any  defi- 
nite conclusion,  and  as  she  sat  down  to  her  solitary  meal, 
she  was  suddenly  struck,  from  quite  another  direction,  with 
what  she  considered  a  very  brilliant  idea. 

"  Rogers  !  "  she  exclaimed,  with  unusual  animation,  "  I 
wonder  if  you  could  find  me  some  flowers,  if  you  were  to 
go  at  once  ?  Quite  a  large  bunch,  I  want — roses,  if  you 
can  get  them.  Do  you  think  you  can  ?  " 

"  Yes,  miss,"  replied  Rogers,  sedately.  "  It  is  not  seven 
o'clock  yet,  and  there  is  a  very  nice  hot-house  on  the  ave- 
nue, five  or  six  blocks  below  here." 

"  Then  please  go — here  is  the  money — "  and  she  handed 
him  a  five-dollar  note — "  and  if  you  can't  get  roses,  take 
whatever  they  have  that  is  prettiest—  perhaps  the  daffodils 
and  snowdrops  have  come." 

The  evident  pleasure  with  which  the  old  man  received 


8o  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

the  commission  added  to  Muriel's  sense  of  enjoyment  of 
this,  her  first  actual  extravagance  since  extravagance  had 
been  within  her  power  ;  for,  liberally  as  her  grandfather 
had  provided  for  her  in  other  respects,  he  had  never  per- 
mitted her  to  exceed  her  allowance  of  pocket-money,  not 
so  much  from  parsimony,  as  because  he  had  honestly 
believed  that  generosity,  in  this  respect,  could  have  only  a 
bad  effect  upon  her,  and,  although  she  had  often,  since  her 
visiting  among  poor  people  began,  been  so  circumstanced 
as  to  feel  the  deprivation  acutely,  she  had  never  been  able 
to  bring  herself  to  the  point  of  "  asking  for  more." 

Rogers  returned  in  an  incredibly  short  time,  with  a  clus- 
ter of  half-blown  rosebuds,  dark-red,  golden-yellow,  pure 
white,  and  blush,  which  made  it  seem  quite  impossible  that 
winter  was  still  in  possession  of  that  part  of  the  earth. 

"  Oh,  the  lovely,  lovely  things  ! "  exclaimed  Muriel,  rap- 
turously, as  she  took  them  from  his  hand. 

"  They  was  pretty  dear,  miss,"  said  Rogers,  depreca- 
tingly,  "  that  what  you  gave  me  was  just  'zactly  right,  the 
man  said,  after  I'd  picked  these  out,  and  I  didn't  take  but 
three  of  each  kind  !  " 

"  Oh,  well,  I  suppose  that's  because  it  is  so  late  in  the 
season,"  said  Muriel,  carelessly,  "  I  am  sure  they  could  not 
be  lovelier.  Just  ask  Margery  to  give  you  some  sort  of 
glass  bowl,  please,  Rogers,  and  fill  it  with  lukewarm  water." 

Rogers  departed,  wondering. 

"  Times  is  changed,  indeed  !  "  he  muttered  to  himself,  as 
he  closed  the  door. 

Muriel  was  still  hovering  over  the  bowl  of  roses,  ten- 
derly adjusting  them  in  different  positions,  when  May  and 
Miss  Bowne  were  ushered  in.  She  had  given  orders  that 
they  should  be  brought  directly  to  the  library.  The  flowers 
served  as  an  introductory  topic,  but  Muriel  soon  saw  that 
her  second  "  ordeal  "  was  as  little  to  be  dreaded  as  the  first 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  8 1 

had  proved,  and  before  the  evening  was  over  she  had  fallen 
into  the  snare  which  had  captured  so  many  people,  and 
addressed  Miss  Bowne  as  "Aunt  Sally"  as  naturally  as 
Possible  !  The  old  lady  was  greatly  pleased,  as  she  always 
was  when  this  tribute  was  paid  unconsciously,  and  would 
nit  allow  Muriel  to  apologize,  and  May  was  scarcely  less 
gratified.  She  had  set  her  heart  upon  the  plan  of  inducing 
Miss  Bowne  to  live,  at  least  for  the  present,  with  Muriel, 
but,  eager  as  she  was  to  suggest,  and  then  further  the  idea, 
she  was  too  wise  to  be  over-eager,  and  nothing  was  said 
about  it  that  evening.  Of  her  puzzled  state  of  mind  Muriel 
did  talk  a  little,  and  Miss  Bowne,  without  knowing  that 
any  one  else  had  made  the  same  suggestion,  said  that  it 
seemed  to  her  that  all  Muriel  could  do,  just  now,  was  to 
wait,  and  keep  her  eyes  open. 

"  There  are  different  ways  of  waiting,"  continued  Miss 
Bowne,  "  some  folks  wait  sitting  down,  and  make  them- 
selves so  comfortable  that  they're  not  very  keen-sighted  for 
chances  to  do  any  thing  else  ;  and  then  they're  very  apt  to 
say  that  there  are  no  chances,  and  that  luck  is  against 
them  !  And  others  wait  booted  and  spurred,  so  to  speak, 
and  all  ready  to  spring  into  the  first  empty  saddle  that 
comes  by.  There's  no  such  thing  as  luck  !  That's  a  word 
that  has  lost  its  head,  and  ought  to  get  it  back  again  and 
be  called  pluck  !  " 

"  But  doesn't  it  seem,"  said  Muriel,  with  a  little  hesita- 
tion, "as  if  some  people  had  more  ways  and  chances  of 
doing  good  put  in  their  paths  than  others  have  ?  " 

"  They  may  seem  to,  but  they  don't,  really,"  replied  Miss 
Bowne,  with  a  cheerful  decision,  which  sometimes  carried 
conviction,  but  which  did  not,  quite,  in  this  case. 

"  If  a  poor  person,  for  instance,  thinks  she  has  no  chance 
to  do  tangible  good,"  she  continued,  "  she  forgets  one 
thing  she  could  always  do,  and  that  is,  be  a  sort  of  broker 


82  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

between  the  people  in  need  of  help  and  those  who  have 
help  to  give.  But  there's  where  a  false  pride  often  steps  in 
— they're  afraid  of  being  rebuffed,  and  it  seems  so  much 
like  begging  for  themselves,  and  so  it  goes,  when,  often 
,  enough,  rich  people  are  glad  to  be  told  of  what  they  call 
'  deserving  cases,'  though  that's  a  term  I  don't  like,  for  I 
can't  help  wondering  where  some  of  us  would  be  if  we  were 
really  to  get  our  deserts." 

The  girls  both  laughed,  more  at  Aunt  Sally's  manner 
than  at  what  she  said,  and  Muriel  responded  quickly  : 

"  I'm  so  glad  you  feel  that  way,  Aunt  Sally.  You  see  I 
don't  mean  to  go  back  to  '  Miss  Bowne  ' — for  so  often,  it 
seems  to  me,  the  people  who  suffer  most  terribly  are  just 
the  very  ones  who,  to  use  a  cant  expression,  '  have  them- 
selves to  thank  for  it.'  You  know  that  verse  in  '  A  Com- 
forter— ' 

'  If  you  break  your  plaything  yourself,  dear, 
Don't  you  cry  for  it  all  the  same? 
I  don't  think  it  is  such  a  comfort. 
One  has  only  oneself  to  blame,' 

and  I  never  could  see  why  people  should  not  be  helped  up, 
because  they  had  slipped  down,  instead  of  being  knocked 
down." 

"  Nor  I  either,"  said  May,  warmly.  "  Aunty  and  I  often 
talk  about  that.  Of  course  there  are,  I  suppose,  incorrig- 
ibles  who  slip  down  on  purpose  to  be  helped  up,  but  more 
often,!  think, a  helping  hand  held  out  might  save  the  poor 
souls  from  all  future  slips,  and  set  them  firmly  on  their 
feet." 

Aunt  Sally  nodded  approvingly. 

"  Yes,"  she  said,  "  I  know  plenty  of  cases  where  the  very 
shame  of  having  slipped,  that  would  have  dragged  them 
still  lower  if  they'd  been  left  to  themselves,  helped  to  hold 
them  up,  and  make  them  strong.  You  know  Marion  Wood- 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  83 

side,  May — at  least  you've  heard  me  talk  enough  about  her 
to  know  her — she's  one  of  my  numerous  nieces,  Miss  Doug- 
las. When  her  servant  married  and  left  her,  three  or  four 
years  ago,  she  took  a  woman  who  drank — not  all  the  time, 
but  every  few  days  ;  a  woman  who,  but  for  that,  was  as  nice 
a  body,  and  as  good  a  cook  as  you'd  wish  to  see,  but  she'd 
lost  place  after  place,  and  her  sprees  were  coming  oftener, 
and  it  really  did  not  look  as  if  she  had  a  chance  left.  Marion 
put  some  little  extra  touches  in  her  servants'  room — it  was 
nice  enough  before — and  she  bought  a  small  brown  coffee- 
pot, and  a  small  black  tea-pot,  and  when  the  poor  soul  came, 
Marion  showed  her  all  about,  as  if  she'd  been  company,  and 
last  of  all,  she  said  : 

"'Now  Hannah,  I  know  just  how  hard  it  will  be,  as  well 
as  any  body,  beside  your  Saviour  and  yourself,  can  know, 
and  I  want  you  to  promise  me  only  one  thing — whenever 
you  feel  the  craving,  no  matter  what  you  are  doing,  make 
yourself  at  once  a  nice  cup  of  tea  or  coffee — these  little 
pots  are  just  for  you — and  while  you  are  making  it  say  a 
prayer  for  help  over  the  hard  place.'  And  if  you'll  believe 
me,  that  woman,  whom  nobody  would  have  in  her  house, 
had  but  one  slip,  after  Marion  took  her,  and  her  mortal 
shame  over  that  has  been,  with  God's  help,  the  rock  of  her 
safety  ever  since." 

There  were  tears  in  Muriel's  eyes,  as  she  said, 
"  how  very,  very  happy  your  niece  must  be  !  and  how 
beautiful  it  was  in  her  to  take  that  poor  woman  whom 
nobody  else  would  have  !  I  have  had  so  much  time  for 
thinking  since  I  left  school,  that  I  have  gone  over  and  over 
again  a  sort  of  plan  for  fighting  intemperance,  which  I 
think  I  could  carry  out,  if  I  might  only  find  the  right  sort 
of  help.  I  don't  know  whether  you  ever  read  an  absurd, 
delightful  book  by  Besant  and  Rice,  called  '  All  Sorts  and 
Conditions  of  Men  ? '  " 


84  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

"  Yes,  indeed  !  "  said  Aunt  Sally  and  May  both  at  once, 
and  the  former  added: 

"  I  like  a  good  novel,  once  in  awhile,  it  sort  of  freshens 
me  up,  and  Jack  Osborne — he's  one  of  my  '  nephews,'  and 
an  artist — brought  me  that  book  when  I  was  shut  in  the 
house  with  a  cold.  1  read  it  twice  over,  and  felt  as  if  it 
ought  to  be  read  aloud  in  the  public  squares.  And  by  the 
way,  my  dear,  there's  another  notion  for  you— why  can't 
the  charitable  people  hire  some  of  the  poor  clerks  and  such- 
like, who  are  out  of  employment,  to  sit  in  the  squares  and 
public  gardens,  and  read  out  loud  ?  I  don't  mean  to  rant 
and  declaim,  and  attract  a  mob  ;  it  would  take  tact  to  man- 
age it,  as  it  does  to  manage  any  thing,  for  that  matter  ;  but 
just  to  sit  down  among  a  parcel  of  loafers  and  say,  '  I've  a 
nice  bright  little  story  here  I'd  like  to  read  aloud,  if  any 
body  will  listen  to  me.'  And  then  he  might  read  '  Ten 
Times  one  is  Ten,'  or  '  Laddie/  or  any  one  of  three  or  four 
dozen  short  stories  that  find  people's  hearts,  and  wake  the 
poor  souls  up  and  get  them  to  talk  back,  and  send  them 
home  with  something  to  think  of !  Now  May  !  I'd  rather 
have  you  laugh  outright,  than  in  that  wicked  way  with  your 
eyes  !  Why  don't  you  pull  me  up  when  I  go  off  like  that  ? 
My  children  always  do — oh,  very  politely,  of  course,  but 
still,  they  do  it !  " 

"  I  didn't  wish  to  pull  you  up,  dear,"  replied  May,  laugh- 
ing a  little,  since  she  had  permission  ;  "  I  love  to  hear  you 
digress  ;  you  say  some  of  your  very  best  things  in  that  way, 
and  I  think  the  idea  of  the  readers  is  capital.  I'll  talk  to 
aunty  about  it,  and  we'll  both  wish  we  had  thought  of  it 
ourselves.  Every  body  loves  a  good  story,  I  think,  and  I 
wish  fiction  could  be  utilized  more  than  it  is,  as  an  agent  of 
reform.  In  our  Palace  of  Delight  we  will  have  two  rooms, 
one  for  the  men  and  one  for  the  women,  and  a  professional 
story  teller  in  each  room." 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  85 

"  Now  I  shall  pull  you  up,  Miss  Douglas,"  said  Muriel, 
smiling  at  May,  "  for  I  really  do  wish  to  hear  what  Miss 
Bowne  thinks  about  my  nebulous  idea,  and  it  has  so  many 
stars  in  it  !  Do  you  think  it  would  be  at  all  possible,  Aunt 
Sally,  to  have  some  such  place — a  lovely  warm,  cheerful, 
homelike  place,  where  they  might  learn  to  make  homes  for 
themselves  ? " 

"My  dear,  I  do!"  replied  Aunt  Sally  with  her  usual 
energy.  "  But  my  idea  would  be,  instead  of  having  one 
palace,  to  have  four  or  five — mansions,  we  might  call  them, 
all  under  one  chief  manager,  but  each  with  a  separate  sub- 
manager.  And  I'd  plant  them  in  the  very  worst  neighbor- 
hoods, where  there  were  the  most  liquor-saloons.  I  do 
believe  if  the  temperance  people,  and  all  the  other  reform- 
ers would  go  at  the  work  of  substitution,  they  might  shut 
up  two-thirds  of  the  saloons,  and  empty  three-fourths  of 
the  prisons,  in  ten  years  !  " 

Then,  with  a  sudden  change  of  tone,  she  exclaimed  : 

"  Here  I've  been  waiting  to  hear  that  clock  strike  nine, 
and  it  doesn't  strike  at  all,  and  if  it  did,  it  would  be  striking 
ten—" 

"  And  at  ten  o'clock,  as  we  all  know,  who  have  the  honor 
of  your  acquaintance,"  interrupted  May,  saucily,  "  the 
coach  turns  to  a  pumpkin,  and  the  horses  to  mice.  Hurry, 
Aunt  Sally,  hurry,  before  Muriel  discovers  what  you  really 
are  !  " 

"Oh,  please — must  you  really  go?  The  evening  seems 
only  just  begun  !  "  pleaded  Muriel  ;  but  Aunt  Sally  was 
inexorable. 

"  My  dear,"  she  said,  "  I  find  example  is  better  than 
precept  where  young  people  are  concerned,  and  I'm  trying 
to  give  my  young  people  a  fair  share  of  health  and  strength, 
as  it's  about  all  the  capital  they'll  have  ;  and  as  they're 
obliged  to  rise  early,  I  get  them  off  to  bed,  as  nearly  as  I 


86  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

can,  at  ten  o'clock,  though  I'll  not  deny  that  it's  '  quite  a 
little  cross,'  as  Sister  Frances  said,  sometimes.  But  I  don't 
mean  that  this  shall  be  our  last  meeting,  by  a  long  shot,  and 
I  hope  you  don't,  either,  so  we  will  only  say  good-night, 
and  not  good-by,  and  you  must  come  and  see  me  very  soon^ 
My  young  folks  are  coming  to  see  you  to-morrow  evening, 
if  you'll  let  them,  and  then  I  hope  we  shall  all  be  comfort- 
able friends.  I  don't  like  acquaintances  very  much.  Good- 
night." 

She  had  been  putting  on  her  wraps  as  she  spoke,  and  now 
she  took  both  Muriel's  hands  in  a  close,  firm  clasp,  and 
kissed  her  with  a  motherly  warmth,  which  brought  tears 
once  more  to  the  eyes  of  the  lonely  girl.  May  bent  for  ona 
more  sniff  at  the  fragrant  roses,  and  Muriel,  seizing  her 
opportunity,  stepped  forward,  and  began  to  disengage  more 
than  half  from  the  rest,  remarking,  as  she  did  so  : 

"  Will  it  be  too  much  trouble  for  you  to  take  some  of 
these  to  your  aunt  for  me,  dear  ? " 

May's  eyes  sparkled  with  pleasure.  She  knew  how  Miss 
Forsythe  craved  the  flowers  which,  in  winter,  were  quite 
beyond  her  reach. 

"  Too  much  trouble  !  No,  indeed  !  "  she  replied,  warmly. 
"  But,  Muriel,  you're  taking  nearly  all — do  leave  some  for 
yourself  ! " 

"  I  am  leaving  plenty  for  myself,  ma'am — see  !  There 
are  two  of  you,  and  there's  only  one  of  me,  you  know  !  " 

And  the  light  laugh  ended  in  a  little  sigh,  as  Muriel 
twisted  some  soft  paper  about  the  stems  of  three-fourths  of 
her  roses.  Then  the  final  good-nights  were  said,  the  offer 
of  Rogers  as  a  "  squire  of  dames  "  was  gratefully  but 
firmly  declined,  because,  as  Aunt  Sally  said,  the  street-cars 
passed  the  nearest  corner,  and  would  take  first  May,  and 
then  herself,  almost  to  their  very  doors,  and  Muriel  was  left 
alone  in  the  library,  which,  so  cheerful  a  few  minutes  before, 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  87 

now  seemed  empty  and  desolate  by  contrast.  She  tried  to 
interest  herself  in  a  book,  but  failed.  Then  she  glanced  at 
the  clock.  It  was  only  a  quarter  past  ten  ;  she  put  the 
rest  of  her  roses  and  smilax  into  a  small  vase  which  stood 
on  the  mantel-piece,  and  then  went  up  stairs,  and  walked 
softly  to  the  door  of  Miss  Post's  sitting-room.  A  bright 
light  shone  over  the  transom,  so  she  knocked,  and  was 
bidden  to  come  in. 

"  There's  nothing  the  matter,"  she  said,  smiling  at  the 
anxiety  which  showed  through  Miss  Post's  gentle  smile, 
"but  I  thought  perhaps  my  roses  would  not  look  so  fresh 
by  morning — these  hot-house  flowers  wither  so  soon — and  so 
I  brought  them  up  to-night,  but  I  should  not  have  knocked, 
if  I  had  not  seen  a  light  over  your  door.  See — aren't  they 
pretty  ?  " 

"  They  are  lovely,  lovely  !  "  said  Miss  Post,  fervently. 
"  Did  you  bring  them  to  me  ?  How  kind  !  I  do  enjoy 
those  plants  in  the  window  so — you  can't  think,  Miss 
Muriel  !  I  haven't  had  a  flower  this  winter,  till  I  came  here. 
And  these  seem  as  if  it  must  be  summer  somewhere.  I  was 
trying  to  read  my  chapter,  but  I  think  I  must  need  stronger 
glasses  ;  I  must  see  about  it  to-morrow.  I  know  this  is 
good  print,  but  I  find  it  harder  and  harder  to  read  at  night." 

"  May  I  read  it  to  you  to-night  ?  "  and  Muriel  took  the 
well-worn  Bible  from  the  table,  and  opened  it  where  a  faded 
card-board  marker  lay.  "  Is  this  it  ?  The  twelfth  chapter 
of  Hebrews  ? " 

"  Yes,  that  is  it,  and  I  shall  be  so  much  obliged,"  said 
Miss  Post,  gratefully.  "  I'm  always  glad  when  I  come  to 
the  eleventh  and  twelfth  chapters  of  Hebrews,"  she  added  • 
"  they  seem  to  put  new  life  and  strength  into  me.  And  if 
you're  not  sleepy,  or  in  a  hurry,  Miss  Muriel,  would  you 
mind  reading  both  ?  I  don't  think  they  were  ever  meant  to 
be  separated,  but  my  eyes  gave  out  last  night  entirely." 


oo  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

"  I  shall  not  mind  at  all,"  said  Muriel,  smiling.  "  I  like 
to  read  aloud ;  Miss  Willis  says  it  is  a  much- neglected 
accomplishment,  and  she  drilled  us  well  in  it." 

So  Muriel  read  those  stirring,  trumpet-like  words,  and 
Miss  Post  listened,  with  a  pleasure  as  eager  and  fresh  as  if 
they  were  quite  new  to  her  ;  or  rather,  with  that  far  deeper 
happiness  which  comes  of  long  acquaintance  ;  and  then 
most  friendly  good-nights  were  exchanged,  and  Muriel 
went  cheerfully  to  her  room  and  to  bed,  first  making  a 
memorandum — "A  lamp  like  the  one  in  the  library  for 
Miss  Post's  sitting-room.  Oculist." 

"  Would  it  be  much  trouble  for  you  to  take  care  of  an- 
other lamp,  Margery  ? "  asked  Muriel,  the  next  morning, 
as  she  stood,  all  ready  for  a  flight  into  the  region  of  shops. 

"  Not  more  than  I  could  manage,  Miss  Muriel,"  replied 
Margery,  dryly,  but  she  added,  presently  : 

"  I  was  about  asking  you  if  there  could  not  be  a  better 
light  for  that  good  lady's  sitting-room.  The  drop-light  is 
over  high  to  read  by,  and  flickers  beyond  a  bit,  and  to  my 
mind,  a  lamp  is  better  than  all  your  gas,  if  it's  properly 
cared  for.  And  there's  some  kind  of  a  new  burner  they 
have  now,  that  gives  even  a  better  light  than  our  library- 
lamp  does — they'll  know  in  the  shop  ;  I  can't  recall  the 
name  just  now." 

"  Margery,  you'd  have  been  burnt  for  a  witch,  if  you'd 
lived  a  hundred  years  ago  !  "  and  Muriel  laughed  brightly. 
"  Pray,  how  did  you  know  that  the  lamp  was  for  Miss  Post's 
room?" 

"  How  would  I  not  know  ?  I  didn't  think  you'd  be  want- 
ing to  light  up  the  parlor,  and  spend  your  evenings  there  !  " 
And  Margery  smiled  in  the  slow,  reluctant,  rather  grim 
manner  which  seemed  to  deprecate  the  light-mindedness  of 
smiling  at  all. 

"  Miss  Muriel,"  she  began,  as  Muriel  turned  to  go,  "  if 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  89 

you'll  not  think  me  meddling — she  had  a  canary-bird  last 
winter  that  somebody  gave  her  because  it  was  ailing,  and  he 
was  tired  of  caring  for  it,  and  just  as  she  thought  she  had 
it  cured,  it  died,  and  to  hear  her  talk  you'd  think  it  was  a 
baby,  at  the  very  least ;  and  she  says  to  think  how  it  would 
have  thriven  in  that  sunny  window  among  the  flowers." 

"Oh,  Margery,"  replied  Muriel,  "  I  always  hate  to  see 
caged  birds — it  seems  so  unnatural." 

"  That  may  be,"  said  Margery,  tranquilly.  "  It  was  not 
in  your  room,  nor  yet  in  the  library  1  thought  it  would  be 
kept,  and  I  have  heard  that  a  bird  born  and  brought  up  in 
a  cage  neither  asks  nor  knows  better." 

"  Is  there  any  thing  else? "  asked  Muriel,  with  such  meek- 
ness that  Margery  gave  her  first  a  keen  and  then  a  wither, 
ing  glance  and  stalked  away.  Nothing  so  roused  her  as  a 
hint  that  she  was  "  forgetting  her  place,"  and  Muriel  flew 
after  her  and  made  her  peace,  unwilling  to  leave  the  house 
under  the  cloud  of  her  old  nurse's  displeasure. 

The  suggestion  about  the  canary  bird  and  her  own  re- 
luctance to  give  a  pleasure  which  she  herself  could  not  ap- 
preciate as  such,  gave  Muriel  food  for  thought  all  the  way 
into  Boston,  until  she  smiled  to  herself,  recollecting  the 
"  Duchess." 

"  I  am  growing  just  like  the  '  Duchess,'  "  she  soliloquized^ 
"with  my  '  the  moral  of  that  is,'  to  every  thing  I  hear  and 
see !" 

But  the  canary-bird,  in  a  resplendent  cage,  was  bought, 
and  the  child-like  pleasure,  fresh  every  day,  of  its  proud 
possessor,  kept  the  lesson  likewise  fresh  in  the  giver's  mind, 
and  turned  the  unconscious  canary  into  an  active  and  use- 
ful home  missionary. 

The  lamp  bought,  too,  was  a  very  pretty  one,  with  the 
newest  and  brightest  burner.  An  oculist,  noted  for  his  suc- 
cess in  difficult  cases,  was  called  on  and  induced  to  make 


9°  W 'A  YS  AND  MEANS. 

an  appointment  for  the  following  day.  Muriel  went  to  the 
best  hot-house  in  Boston  and  engaged  a  supply  of  cut  flow- 
ers, to  be  sent  regularly  every  other  day,  feeling,  as  she 
did  so,  that  she  was  making  a  sort  of  engagement  with  her- 
self to  find  candidates  for  them.  Then,  well  satisfied  with 
her  morning's  work,  she  decided  to  lunch  at  a  cheerful-look- 
ing restaurant  upon  which  she  happened,  rather  than  go 
home  to  her  solitary  meal  in  the  library. 

She  had  given  her  order,  and  was  absorbed  in  a  new  mag- 
azine, when  a  very  pleasant  voice  said  : 

"  Good-morning,  Miss  Douglas.  Shall  I  be  intruding 
upon  you  if  I  take  this  chair  ?  "  and  looking  up  she  recog- 
nized Mr.  Keith,  who  stood,  hat  in  hand,  deferentially 
awaiting  her  permission  to  seat  himself  in  the  chair  opposite 
her  own.  She  was  glad  to  see  him,  as  people  generally  were, 
and  her  "  Not  at  all !  "  was  so  evidently  sincere  that  he  sat 
down  promptly,  well  pleased  with  his  reception.  His  father's 
office  was  nearly  opposite  the  restaurant,  but  it  never  crossed 
Muriel's  mind  that  his  sudden  appearance  was  any  thing 
more  than  a  very  ordinary  co-incidence.  Indeed,  although 
she  knew  the  street  and  number  of  the  office,  her  thoughts 
had  been  upon  such  different  matters,  as  she  walked,  that 
she  had  failed  to  remember  it,  or  to  see  the  modest  sign 
which  would  have  recalled  it  to  her.  The  half-hour  which 
followed  was  a  pleasant  one  for  Muriel,  and,  judging  by  his 
manner,  extremely  so  for  Mr.  Keith.  He  was  a  good  list- 
ener, as  well  as  a  good  talker,  and  when  Muriel,  intending 
to  be  very  cautious,  began  by  asking  a  few  questions  upon 
points  connected  with  her  "nebulous"  scheme,  he  drew  her 
on,  and  that  without  asking  one  impertinent  question,  until, 
when  she  recalled  the  interview,  she  was  somewhat  dis- 
mayed to  find  that  she  had  talked  with  him  about  it  nearly 
as  freely  as  she  had  talked  with  Miss  Bowne  and  May  the 
evening  before.  But  why,  she  questioned  herself,  should 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  91 

she  feel  any  dismay  ?  It  would  be  necessary,  before  putting 
any  of  her  theories  into  practice,  to  apply  to  the  firm  for  the 
requisite  money,  and  to  so  old  a  friend  and  adviser  as  the 
elder  Mr.  Keith,  it  would  be  discourteous,  to  say  the  least 
of  it,  not  to  give  an  outline  of  her  plans.  Besides,  his  knowl- 
edge of  men  and  things  would  be  a  great  help  to  her  utter 
ignorance  and  inexperience.  That  ghost  of  a  derisive  sm.le 
which  had  so  troubled  Muriel  at  their  first  interview,  did 
not  appear  to-day. 

Mr.  Douglas  Keith  was  an  apt  reader  of  faces  much  more 
opaque  as  to  expression  than  Muriel's  was,  or  ever  would 
be,  and  perhaps  he  had  seen  a  reflection  in  her  countenance 
which  served  him  as  a  warning.  Be  that  as  it  may,  his  face 
showed  only  a  respectful  attention  and  most  friendly  inter- 
est as  Muriel  spoke  more  freely  of  her  aims  and  wishes.  He 
made  one  slightly  false  step,  but  quickly  retracted  it.  When 
Muriel  spoke  of  buying  three  or  four  old  buildings,  or  build- 
ing lots,  in  parts  of  the  city  which  would  be  suitable  for 
her  purpose,  he  replied  with  a  slight  hesitation  which  some- 
how made  what  he  said  seem  more  important  : 

"  You  would,  I  suppose,  Miss  Douglas,  wish  to  do  only 
such  things  with  the  property  as  your  grandfather,  were  he 
still  living,  would  approve  and  sanction  ?  " 

Muriel  was  silent  a  moment,  and  her  silence  was  so  mis- 
construed that  her  reply,  when  it  came,  took  her  auditor  by 
surprise.  She  was  debating  with  herself  as  to  how  much 
she  might  safely  and  honorably  tell  concerning  the  wishes 
last  expressed  by  her  grandfather,  and  the  question  was  a 
difficult  one,  for  she  could  not  bear  the  thought  of  seeming 
to  blame  him. 

"  You  are  quite  right,"  she  said  at  last ;  "  my  grandfather 
gave  me,  if  not  exactly  instructions,  at  least  suggestions, 
concerning  the  use  of  the  property,  upon  which  I  am  trying 
to  act ;  but  he  left  all  arrangements,  as  to  detail,  wholly  in 


92  IV A  YS  AND  MEANS. 

my  hands,  so  that  you  can  imagine  also,  perhaps,  how 
anxious  I  am  to  justify  his  confidence  in  me.  I  think  your 
father,  who  was  with  my  grandfather  several  times  during 
the  last  week  of  his  life,  will  quite  understand  this,  and  I 
rely  upon  his  sympathy,  as  well  as  upon  his  judgment,  for 
which  my  grandfather  had  always  a  very  high  regard." 

"  I  hope  you  will  pardon  me,  Miss  Douglas,"  said  Mr. 
Keith,  so  humbly  that  Muriel  at  once  relented,  "  if  my 
interest  in  your  welfare  has  made  me  seem  impertinent. 
When  you  have  lived  as  long  in  this  wicked  world  as  I 
have,  you  will  perhaps— but  no,  I  doubt  if  you  are  ever 
thoroughly  convinced  of  the  wickedness  of  the  world.  You 
will  find,  however,  this  much — that  charity  is  an  edge-tool, 
which  needs  most  careful  handling — " 

"And  children  should  not  meddle  with  edge-tools?" 
interrupted  Muriel,  with  a  little  smile,  which  somewhat 
disconcerted  Mr.  Keith  and  made  him  forget  his  perora- 
tion. "You  are  very  kind,"  she  added,  "but  I  think  you 
need  not  be  alarmed.  I  shall  do  nothing,  absolutely 
nothing  of  any  magnitude,  without  first  consulting  your 
father,  and  I  promise  to  be  guided  by  his  advice  for  at 
least  a  year,  perhaps  even  longer,  for  I  do  not  learn  any 
thing  very  rapidly,  and  I  feel  my  ignorance  more  and  more 
every  day.  And  now  I  must  say  good  morning,  for  I  have 
still  several  errands  to  do  before  going  home." 

Mr.  Keith  rose  and  held  out  his  hand,  saying,  with  a 
frank  smile  : 

"  You  have  put  me  in  my  place,  Miss  Douglas,  and  I 
hope  I  shall  be  wise  enough  to  stay  there.  Good-morning." 

And  to  her  great  relief  he  made  no  offer  to  accompany 
her  to  the  counter  where  the  checks  and  money  were  taken. 
She  had  been  vaguely  fearful  that  he  would  try  to  pay  for 
her  lunch,  which  evidenced  the  slightness  of  her  acquaint- 
ance with  him.  He  would  have,  not  tried,  but  simply 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  93 

done  it,  in  most  cases,  but  he  had  already,  small  as  his 
opportunities  had  been,  taken  the  measure  of  her  character 
quite  too  well  for  that.  And  this  trifling  indication  of  his 
estimate  of  her  did  much  to  atone  for  the  mistake  he  had 
made  a  few  minutes  before  ;  for,  as  she  reflected,  the  mis- 
take was,  after  all,  a  natural  one,  which  almost  any  one  in 
his  place  would  have  made.  Aunost  ?  She  wished  she 
might  believe  it  were  not  quite  ' 


CH \PTER  V 

TAKING    IT  PATIENTLY. 

"  They  roused  him  with  jam  and  judicious  advice." 

"Hunting  of  the  Snark." 

MURIEL  would  have  felt  greatly  pleased  and  cheered, 
the  evening  before,  had  she  known  how  nearly  her 
cause  was  won  with  Aunt  Sally,  before  the  first  blow  had 
been  struck.  It  had  not  crossed  the  old  lady's  mind  that 
she  might  be  called  upon  to  help  the  young  girl  with  her 
half-formed  plans,  excepting  as  any  outside-standing  friend 
might  help  her  ;  but  she  did  hope  very  earnestly  that  this 
vast  "  opportunity  "  might  be  properly  handled  and  made 
the  most  of.  May  was  in  such  high  spirits  at  the  result  of 
the  introduction,  that  Aunt  Sally  accused  her  of  being 
"fey,"  and  advised  her  to  "  comb  herself  down," 

"  My  scholars  will  do  it  for  me  to-morrow,  Jear,"  said 
May,  cheerfully  ;  "  so  let  mq  disport  myself  while  I  may. 
I  am  so  pleased  that  you  and  Muriel  made  such  a  good 
impression  on  each  other — you  see,  I  felt  very  responsible 
for  both  of  you  !  " 

"  How  do  you  know  we  did  ? "  queried  Miss  Bowne, 
abruptly. 

"  Now,  Aunt  Sally,  affectation  is  dreadfully  unbecoming 
to  you.  You  wouldn't  have  kissed  her  good-night  in  a 
manner  which  fairly  roused  my  jealousy,  and  she  would  not 
have  fallen  to  calling  you  'Aunt  Sally,"  with  that  sweet 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  95 

unconscious  kind  of  grace,  if  the  mutual  impression  had 
not  been  all  I  could  wish." 

"  I  do  like  her,  and  that's  a  fact,"  said  Aunt  Sally,  peace- 
ably, "  I  could  not  help  thinking,  as  I  sat  there,  how  few 
girls  would  have  stood  the  test  of  suddenly-acquired  wealth, 
as  she  seems  to  be  standing  it.  I  noticed  how  simply  she 
was  dressed,  and,  dear  knows,  her  being  in  black  don't  ac- 
count for  that,  in  these  days  !  and  how  the  library  looked* 
as  if  it  might  be  exactly  as  her  grandfather  left  it — no 
knick-knacks  and  foolishnesses  scattered  about.  And  her 
one  thought  about  her  money  seems  to  be  how  she  may 
do  the  most  good  with  it.  But  it's  most  terribly  lonely  for 
the  child,  all  by  herself  in  that  great  house — it  isn't  right, 
May,  she  ought  to  have  some  one  to  stay  with  her  ;  hasn't 
she  any  relatives  that  wouldn't  make  her  too  miserable  ? " 

"  I  am  afraid  not,"  said  May,  laughing  at  this  unique  way 
of  putting  it ;  "I  don't  think  her  great-aunts,  the  Misses 
Gordon,  you  know,  would  be  at  all  congenial  with  her,  from 
the  little  I  know  of  them,  and  besides,  they  have  a  nice 
little  home  of  their  own,  and  it  is  hardly  likely  that  they 
would  wish  either  to  give  that  up,  or  to  separate.  She  needs 
somebody  who  will  really  and  actively  sympathize  with  her 
in  her  efforts  to  do  good  with  all  that  money,  and  at  the 
same  time  keep  her  from  feeling  morbidly  responsible.  But 
she  is  not  exactly  alone — she  has  taken  dear  Miss  Post  for 
her  permanent  seamstress,  and  given  her  two  nice  sunny 
rooms  in  the  back  building  ;  I  wish  you  could  hear  the  dear 
old  lady  talk  about  it !  It's  like  a  real  little  home  of  her 
own,  at  last,  for  Muriel  let  her  bring  all  the  furniture  she 
cared  for,  and  she  has  her  meals  in  her  sitting-room,  with 
the  understanding  that  she  is  always  at  liberty  to  invite  her 
friends  either  to  eat  or  sleep  with  her.  That  little  stroke  of 
good  common  sense  on  Muriel's  part,  pleased  me.  It  seemed 
kinder,  on  the  face  of  it,  to  have  Miss  Post  at  her  own  table, 


96  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

but  the  dear  soul  has  lived  alone  so  long,  that  I  know  she 
would  have  found  it  embarrassing,  and  she  hates  late  din- 
ners, too " 

"  Sensible  woman  !  "  interjected  Aunt  Sally — 

"  And  don't  think  her  early  dinner  is  worth  eating,  no  mat- 
ter how  sumptuous  it  may  be,  if  she  can't  have  a  cup  of  tea 
with  it.  You  must  call  on  her,  when  you  go  there  again,  and 
hear  her  expatiate  upon  her  undeserved  good  fortune — and 
Muriel!  And  then,  you  know,  Muriel  has  that  delightful,  grim 
old  Scotchwoman,  who  watches  over  her  like  an  affectionate 
dragon.  And  I  have  an  idea  that  the  vacant  rooms  of  that 
great  house  will  fill  up,  not  suddenly,  and  in  a  way  to  be 
repented  of,  but  in  ways  of  which  it  will  warm  one's  heart 
to  hear." 

"  It's  a  queer  thing,"  said  Aunt  Sally,  musingly,  "  a  very 
queer  thing,  when  you  come  to  think  of  it,  how  we  all  behave, 
as  if  that  commandment  about  the '  two  coats  '  was  a  dead  let- 
ter, and  I  never  could  see  why  it  should  be.  There's  no  reason 
so  far  as  I  can  see,  why  we  mayn't  have  pretty  things,  and 
pleasant  things,  if  we'd  only  be  willing  to  share  them.  But 
here's  your  corner,  May — you're  sure  you're  not  afraid? 
Well,  run  along  then,  childie — it's  only  four  doors,  to  be 
sure — and  good-night,  and  thank  you  ?  " 

"  Thank  you,  you  mean  !  Good-night,  Aunt  Sally."  And 
May  stepped  off  the  car,  and  reached  her  door  without  being 
kidnapped,  while  Aunt  Sally  went  home  to  sound  Muriel's 
praises,  and  tell  her  children  that  they  must  be  just  as 
friendly  with  her,  when  they  went  to  call,  the  next  evening} 
as  they  would  if  she  were  poor. 

They  were — or  very  nearly  so.  And  although  Muriel, 
feeling  a  little  embarrassed,  did  not  show  quite  to  such  good 
advantage  as  she  had  shown  to  Aunt  Sally  alone,  they  were 
much  pleased  with  her,  and  responded  with  frank  pleasure 
to  her  timid  overtures.  Dick,  especially,  approved  of  her, 


W 'A  YS  AND  MEANS.  97 

although,  when  Marion  mischievously  cornered  him  for  his 
reasons  for  the  sudden  liking,  he  could  give  no  very  coherent 
statement. 

"  Well,  she  looked  as  if  she  wasn't  thinking  about  her- 
self," he  said,  at  last,  "  and  she  seemed  really  and  truly  to 
be  interested  about  the  farm,  and — oh,  hang  it,  Marion,  you 
can  see  for  yourself,  that  she's  very  different  from  those 
idiots  who  sometimes  come  to  see  Alice  and  you,  and  who 
call  me  '  Mr.  Raymond.'  She  called  me  Dick  right  off,  and 
then  laughed  and  apologized  a  little  and  said  she'd  rather 
if  I  didn't  mind.  She  doesn't  want  to  pretend  I'm  a  young 
man,  and  try  to  flirt  with  me  !  " 

"  Don't  try  to  be  cynical,  dear,"  said  Marion,  "  it  is  not 
becoming  to  you.  The  idiots,  probably,  in  the  goodness  of 
their  hearts,  do  as  they'd  be  done  by,  and  as  they  honestly 
think  you'd  like  to  be  done  by.  But  I'm  quite  willing  to 
admit  that  she  seems  to  be  a  nice,  frank,  sensible  creature, 
and  I  hope  we  shall  be  good  friends." 

"  But  we  musn't  be  too  friendly  all  at  once,  Marion,"  said 
Alice,  gently.  "  Remember  how  rich  she  is  and  how  poor 
we  are.  I  shouldn't  like  her  to  think  we  were  influenced 
by  that." 

"  Now,  Alice,"  began  Dick,  impetuously  ;  but  Marion 
laid  a  warning  hand  upon  his  arm  and  he  stopped  abruptly. 

"  I  don't  think  there  is  any  danger  of  her  misconstruing 
our  motives,"  said  Marion  ;  "  she  looks  too  sincere  herself 
to  doubt  the  sincerity  of  other  people,  and  I  am  '  free  to 
confess,'  as  Aunt  Sally  says,  that  I  am  looking  forward  to 
helping  her  spend  some  of  her  money.  I  see  so  many, 
many  cases,  where  a  little  money,  judiciously  spent,  would 
do  such  a  vast  deal  of  good  ;  and  I  don't  think  I  shall  be 
afraid  to  ask  her  when  I  know  her  a  little  better.  And,  if 
she  did  but  know  it,  that's  a  very  great  compliment." 

Aunt  Sally  listened  eagerly  to  all  her  children  had  to  say 


9°  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

about  Muriel,  and  they  could  see  that  she  was  a  little  dis- 
appointed with  their  impression  of  her. 

"  We  haven't  all  your  gift,  dear,"  said  Marion,  laughing 
at  the  expression  of  her  face  ;  "  we  only  see  people  in  their 
every-dayness,  while  you  are  all  the  time  coming 

'  Out  on  the  other  side  the  novel 
Silent  silver  lights  and  darks  undreamed  o'.' 

"  But  she  doesn't  4  hush  and  bless  herself  with  silence  ' 
about  them,"  said  Dick  saucily,  atoning  for  his  insinuation 
with  a  hug  that  left  Aunt  Sally  breathless. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Osborne  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Craig  called 
upon  Muriel  very  soon  afterward,  and  a  warm  liking  sprang 
up  at  once  among  them  all  for  her — a  liking  which  was  quite 
as  warmly  returned,  and  which,  to  Muriel's  over-shadowed 
heart  and  life,  was  like  the  "clear  shining  after  rain." 

She  questioned  with  herself  as  to  whether  she  should 
return  these  friendly  visits,  or  forego  the  pleasure  for  which 
she  longed  until  she  had  fulfilled  a  year  of  ceremonial 
"  mourning  "  for  her  grandfather  ;  and  at  last,  puzzled  by 
the  conflict  between  her  wishes  and  fears,  referred  the  case 
to  May. 

"  Yon  see,  May,"  she  said  wearily,  as  if  she  were  rehears- 
ing an  oft-told  tale,  "  it  seems  to  me  sometimes,  that  just 
because  grandpapa  and  I  did  not  love  each  other  better 
while  he  lived,  I  ought  to  be  all  the  more  careful  to  do 
nothing  which  would  look  like  a  reflection  on  his  memory." 

"Yes,  I  see  what  you  mean,"  said  May,  thoughtfully, 
"  and  I  suppose  it  is  natural  that  you  should  feel  so  ;  and, 
of  course,  I  should  think  it  strange  if  you  were  to  wish  to 
go  into  gay  society  immediately  ;  but,  Muriel,  don't  you 
think  that  your  power  for  doing  good  will  be  increased  if 
you  make  friends  with  these  nice  people  and  visit  them 
quietly,  instead  of  just  passively  waiting  for  all  the  over- 
tures of  friendship  to  come  from  them  ?  " 


WA  YS  AA'D  MEANS.  99 

"Yes,"  said  Muriel,  honestly,  "I  do  ;  and  I  do  not  think 
that  grandpapa  himself  would  wish  me  to  do  any  thing,  or 
keep  from  doing  any  thing,  as  a  mere  matter  of  ceremony, 
any  more  than  he  wished  me  to  wear  '  crape  mourning.' 
The  fact  is,  I  believe,  that  I  am  afraid  of — comrrcnts.  It  is 
dreadful  to  be  so  cowardly  ;  but  oh,  May,  you  don't  know 
how  tired  I  was  before  I  had  established  my  position  about 
wearing  black  'instead  of  '  mourning,'  and  about  keeping 
on  living  here,  instead  of  boarding  or  visiting  for  my 
living.  And  I  know  I  shall  be  dealt  with  if  I  visit  at  all, 
for  at  least  six  months,  no  matter  how  quiet  the  visits  are. 
I'm  ashamed  of  myself,  but  there  is  the  real  truth." 

"  I  don't  wonder  you're  ashamed "  said  May,  smiling 
and  frowning  both  at  once ;  "  if  you  show  any  more  signs 
of  such  alarming  weakness,  I  shall  be  inclined  to  agree 
with  the  people  who  thought  it  would  be  better  for  you  to 
go  away  somewhere  !  If  that  poor  reason  is  your  only  one, 
I  have  no  compassion  for  you  at  all.  But  this  feeble-minded 
state  must  not  last — you  must  brace  up,  and  simply  do 
what  is  for  the  best,  and  then  take  the  consequences ! 
The  friendship  of  such  people  as  the  Osbornes  and  Craigs 
will  more  than  repay  you,  I  am  quite  sure." 

"  Please  don't  entirely  annihilate  me,"  said  Muriel,  meekly. 
"  I  will  endeavor  to  '  brace  up,'  but  you  ought  to  remember 
that  I  have  not  your  blessed  gift  of  seeing  just  two  sides  of 
every  thing — a  wrong  side  and  a  right  side.  It's  just  because 
I  am  so  anxious  to  secure  the  friendship  of  those  nice  peo- 
ple, and  feel  what  an  enjoyment  it  will  be,  that  I  have  hesi- 
tated about  the  matter.  If  it  had  been  something  I  disliked 
to  do,  I  could  have  settled  myself  easily  enough." 

"  You  think  I  am  fierce — you  may  be  very  thankful  that 
you  did  not  give  Aunt  Sally  a  chance  to  fall  upon  you  in 
this  matter  !  "  said  May  with  a  little  laugh  at  the  thought. 
"  '  Pagan  '  would  have  been  her  mildest  epithet  for  such 


loo  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

reasoning  as  that.  Now  just  consider — is  a  duty  any 
less  a  duty  because  it  is  something  we  like  to  do?  And 
is  it  not  a  blessed  thing  that  so  many  of  our  duties  are 
capable  of  serving  for  pleasures  as  well  ?  Yes,  of  course, 
it  is !  Aunty  gave  me  a  nice  little  rule  for  such  cases — 
for  your  veiled  sarcasm  doesn't  always  fit  me,  I  can  tell 
you.  She  said,  whenever  one  is  halting  between  two 
opinions  because  a  duty  seems  merely  a  self-gratification, 
one  need  merely  ask  the  question,  '  would  I  do  this  if 
all  the  pleasure  for  myself  were  taken  out  of  it  ? '  I  think 
a  candid  answer  to  that  question  would  usually  settle  the 
matter." 

"  Yes,  I  suppose  it  would,"  said  Muriel,  thoughtfully, 
"and  May,  do  you  know  I  am  beginning  to  think  you  ought 
to  be  a  better  girl,  even,  than  you  are,  with  the  advantages 
you've  had  ? " 

"  Don't  say  '  even,'  "  said  May,  with  sudden  and  genuine 
humility.  "  Whenever  I  look  at  Aunt  Agnes,  and  then  at 
myself,  impartially,  I  wonder  how  I  have  the  face  to  talk  to 
any  body  as  I  talk  to  you.  Jt  seems  like  such  colossal  self- 
conceit." 

"  You  shall  not  talk  to  me  that  way,"  said  Muriel,  affec- 
tionately, "  however  else  you  may  talk.  When  I  think  you 
are  self-conceited,  I  will  let  you  know." 

Muriel  did  "  brace  up  "  after  this  discussion  with  May, 
and  went,  in  a  few  days,  to  return  the  two  calls  which  had 
given  her  so  much  pleasure.  She  was  more  than  ever 
charmed  with  Rose  Osborne,  and  delighted  with  the  "  flat " 
of  five  rooms,  in  which  the  young  couple  lived. 

"  I  dare  not  call  Jack,"  said  Rose,  laughing  a  little,  "  for 
I  know  he  will  come,  and  he  is  really  very  busy  to-day, 
finishing  something  he  hates — a  commission.  I  can't  make 
him  see  the  black  ingratitude  of  hating  a  commission  ;  all  I 
can  do  is  to  keep  him  from  being  distracted,  and  not  let  him 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  IOI 

distract  himself,  and  then  he  grumbles  at  me,  and  says  I 
shall  lose  him  all  his  friends." 

"  He  is  very  ungrateful,"  said  Muriel,  with  a  sociableness 
which  surprised  herself,  "  and  he  must  have  an  extremely  un- 
flattering opinion  of  his  friends,  if  he  thinks  they  will  be 
lost  so  easily.  But  some  day,  when  he  is  not  under  the 
ban  of  a  commission,  I  hope  he  will  let  me  see  his  studio, 
of  which  May  Douglas  has  told  me  so  much,  and  the 
sketches  and  '  studies  '  she  thinks  so  charming." 

"He  will  be  delighted  to  do  so,  I  know,"  replied  Rose, 
cordially.  "  Let  me  see — to-day  is  Tuesday — can  not  you 
and  May  come  and  lunch  with  us,  very  informally,  next 
Saturday  ?  We  lunch  at  one  o'clock,  and  you  will  meet  no 
one  but  our  two  selves  and  May;  then  you  can  have  plenty 
of  time  to  see  the  sketches  and  things — there  are  scores  of 
them,  for  Jack  is  an  indefatigable  sketcher,  whenever  he 
goes,  and  I,  of  course,  think  them  all  admirable!  " 

"  I  will  come,  with  much  pleasure,  if  May  will,"  said 
Muriel,  after  a  moment's  hesitation.  "  I  know,"  she  added, 
drawn  on  by  Rose's  friendly  face  and  manner,  "  that  it  is 
not  usual  for  people  to  visit  so  soon  after  a  loss — after  a 
death  in  one's  immediate  family,  but  grandpapa  was  not 
like  a  great  many  people.  He  spoke,  shortly  before  his 
death,  about  his  intense  dislike  of  so-called  'mourning,'  and 
it  seems  to  me  that  all  the  other  forms  and  ceremonies  come 
under  the  same  head.  I  do  not  see  how  people  can  feel 
like  going  into  any  very  gay  place  or  company  soon  after 
a  death — any  death — in  the  house,  but  when  I  thought  of 
shutting  myself  up  with  myself  for  a  year,  or  even  six 
months,  it  seemed  to  me  so  dreadful,  and  I  feel  so  in  need 
of  friends — " 

She  stopped  abruptly,  afraid  of  saying  too  much,  but 
Rose,  who  had  heard  much  of  her  history  from  May,  quite 
understood. 


102  WA  YS  AND  MEANt. 

"  I  think  you  are  right,  dear,"  she  said,  taking  Muriel's 
hand  as  she  spoke.  "  Surely,  we  can  mourn  as  truly  for  our 
dead  without  making  other  people  share  in  our  mourning, 
and  while  we  live  our  duty  is  to  the  living.  I  was  very 
glad  when  I  found  that  you  did  not  mean  utterly  to  seclude 
yourself  for  any  prescribed  time.  You  see  hoth  May  and 
Aunt  Sally  have  talked  so  much  about  you  that  I  feel  as  if 
I  knew  you  quite  well,  and  I  am  so  much  interested  in  what 
Aunt  Sally  calls  your  '  opportunities  ! '  " 

An  hour  of  happy  talking  followed,  and  when  at  length 
Muriel  rose  to  go,  she  said  : 

"  I  will  not  apologize  for  making  a  visit  of  my  very  first 
call,  Mrs.  Osborne,  for  you  have  kept  me  from  realizing  that 
I  was  doing  it !  " 

"  And  I  may  bring  Jack  to  see  you  one  evening  this 
week  ?  "  said  Rose  ;  "  then  he  will  forgive  me,  perhaps,  for 
not  calling  him  to-day." 

When  Muriel  looked  at  her  watch  on  the  way  down  in  the 
elevator,  she  found  that  it  was  quite  too  late  to  make  her 
call  upon  Mrs.  Craig  that  day,  and  so  returned  home, with  a 
feeling  of  warmth  and  happiness  in  her  heart,  which  shone 
from  her  face,  and  made  Margery  exclaim  : 

"  You've  left  a  year  or  two  somewhere  in  the  street,  Miss 
Muriel !  " 

If  she  had,  it  found  her  again  next  morning.  She  was  in 
the  library,  as  usual,  and  was  rewarding  herself  for  a  care- 
ful and  business-like  entry  in  her  memorandum-book,  by 
touching  up  her  plan  for  the  conservatory.  She  did  not 
mean  to  have  it  begun  for  two  or  three  months,  partly  be- 
cause she  wished  to  know  just  how  much  money  she  might 
reasonably  devote  to  it,  and  partly  because  she  kept  think- 
ing of  improvements  and  additions  to  her  original  plan,  and 
enjoyed  working  at  it.  She  could  not  help  being  amused 
herself  at  the  manner  in  which  she  made  a  favorite  plaything 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  103 

of  this  plan,  taking  it  up  whenever  she  felt  especially  tired 
or  annoyed. 

"  I  suppose  we  keep  on  playing  with  dolls  all  our  lives," 
she  mused,  "  only  we  change  the  dolls— and  not  always 
for  the  better — as  we  grow  older,  and,  as  we  imagine, 
•wiser." 

Her  planning  and  philosophizing  were  alike  cut  short  by 
the  announcement  that  Mrs.  Hardcastle  was  in  the  parlor. 
Rogers  could  not  have  been  induced  to  call  it  the  drawing- 
room,  so  it  was  a  fortunate  thing  that  Muriel  had  no  preju- 
dice in  favor  of  the  more  stately  name. 

Muriel  scolded  herself  roundly,  on  her  way  to  the  parlor, 
for  the  cowardly  feeling  of  dismay  which  was  taking  posses- 
sion of  her.  She  had  had  no  such  feeling,  under  the  pre- 
vious attacks  which  had  been  made  upon  her,  but  not  all 
May's  common  sense,  nor  her  own  determination,  had  en- 
abled her  to  shake  off  the  idea  that  she  was,  perhaps,  merely 
indulging  her  own  wishes  at  the  expense  of  a  natural  and 
proper  sentiment  on  the  part  of  others. 

"  '  Thrice  is  he  armed  who  hath  his  quarrel  just,' "  she 
said  to  herself,  resolutely,  "  and  I  wilt  believe  in  the  justness 
of  my  position.  May,  with  her  clear  head  and  kind  heart  can 
not,  surely,  be  so  utterly  mistaken." 

"  How  very  well  you  are  looking,  my  dear,"  said  Mrs. 
Hardcastle,  after  the  first  greetings  had  been  exchanged. 
"  I  was  really  afraid,  after  the  long  strain  under  which  you 
were  so  sweetly  patient,  that  there  would  be  a  terrible  reac- 
tion. But  a  tranquil  temperament  is  certainly  a  great  bless- 
ing. I  hope  I  did  not  interrupt  you  in  anything — you  must 
have  so  much  to  attend  to,  poor  child.  Can't  I  go  where 
you  were  sitting,  and  not  keep  you  here  ?  " 

"  I  was  not  at  all  busy,"  said  Muriel,  smiling  in  spite  of 
herself,  "  and  there  is  no  reason  why  I  should  not  be  kept 
here,  thank  you.  Are  uncle  and  the  girls  quite  well  ?  " 


i°4  IV A  YS  AND  MEANS. 

"  Quite,  thanks ;  and  Julia  has  had  a  great  deal  to  say 
about  her  delightful  little  visit  to  you  the  other  day.  You 
must  have  made  yourself  extremely  agreeable  !  " 

"  No,  if  any  body  made  me  agreeable,  it  was  she  her- 
self," said  Muriel.  "  She  is  so  very  bright,  that  even  a  stupid 
person  can't  help  responding  a  little.  I  wish  she  would 
come  again." 

"  She  is  hoping  to  have  her  visit  returned,  my  dear,  for, 
of  course,  while  it  would  not  be  at  all  proper,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, for  you  to  do  any  general  visiting,  coining  to 
such  near  relations  as  we  are  would  not  count.  And,  how- 
ever careful  one  may  be,  ill-natured  people  will  talk.  For 
instance,  I  was  told  this  morning,  by  an  indefatigable  news- 
collector  of  my  acquaintance,  that  you  went  yesterday  to 
call  upon  Mrs.  Osborne,  the  artist's  wife,  and  although  I  as- 
sured her  that  there  must  be  some  mistake,  she  was  so  posi- 
tive that  she  was  right,  that  I  came  straight  to  you  for 
authority  to  contradict  her."  Mrs.  Hardcastle  paused  with 
a  keen,  questioning  look  at  Muriel. 

"  I  am  sorry  to  disappoint  you,  Aunt  Matilda,"  said  Muriel, 
feeling  that  her  manner  was  stiffening  as  she  spoke,  "  but 
for  once  your  gossiping  informant  told  the  truth.  I  did 
call  on  Mrs.  Osborne  yesterday,  in  return  for  a  very  pleas- 
ant call  from  her  ;  and  I  intended  going  to  see  Mrs.  Craig, 
who  also  called  on  me,  too,  but  I  stayed  so  long  with  Mrs. 
Osborne  that  there  was  not  time." 

"  My  dear  Muriel,"  said  Mrs.  Hardcastle,  looking  genu- 
inely shocked  and  disturbed,  "  if  you  have  no  feeling  your- 
self about  this  matter,  I  wish  you  would  consent  to  consider 
the  feelings  of  other  people.  I  have  successfully  accounted 
for  the  singular  stand  which  you  took  about  mourning,  so 
successfully,  that  I  have  actually  heard  you  praised,  instead 
of  blamed  for  it ;  but  nothing  that  I,  or  any  one  else,  can  say, 
will  account  satisfactorily  for  such  a  line  of  conduct  as  you 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  105 

are  pursuing  now.  Remember,  it  is  barely  a  month  since 
your  grandfather  died,  and  when  you  owe  him  so  much — " 

Mrs.  Hardcastle  paused,  as  if  words  were  wholly  inade- 
quate to  express  her  feelings,  and  Muriel  took  advantage 
of  the  pause  to  begin  her  defense. 

"  I  am  sorry  to  have  annoyed  you,  Aunt  Matilda,"  she 
said  ;  "  but,  perhaps,  if  you  will  look  at  the  matter  impar- 
tially, you  will  admit  that  there  is  no  cause  for  annoyance. 
I  have  not  the  slightest  intention  of  going  into  general 
society,  or  any  sort  of  gayety,  or  of  doing  any  thing  dis- 
respectful to  grandpapa's  memory  ;  but  I  can  talk  to  you 
about  this  as  I  could  not  to  any  one  outside  the  family,  for 
you  know  enough  of  what  went  before  to  understand. 
Grandpapa  never  loved  me.  I  fancied,  just  at  the  last, 
that  he  was  learning  to  love  me  a  little,  but  I  have  con- 
cluded, since  his  death,  that  I  was  mistaken.  He  merely 
turned  to  me,  as  he  would  have  turned  to  any  one,  because 
he  felt  that  he  was  dying.  He  told  me,  as  you  know,  his 
views  about  so-called  'mourning,' and  it  seems  to  me  that 
this  comes  under  the  same  head.  My  life  has  been  very 
lonely,  very  friendless,  compared  with  the  lives  of  most  girls 
of  my  age.  This  was  not  my  fault ;  it  was  in  deference  to 
grandpapa's  wishes.  I  know  from  several  things  which  he 
said,  at  the  last,  that  he  felt  he  had  been  mistaken.  I  have 
never  told  you  of  these  things,  because  I  was  afraid  you 
would  not  understand  ;  but  I  know  he  thought  that,  if  he 
might  have  another  chance,  he  would  make  his  life  very 
different  from  what  it  had  been.  And  I  can  not  think  that, 
if  he  might  know  about  it,  he  would  wish  me  to  forego  such 
real  and  valuable  friends  as  the  Raymonds  and  Osbornes 
and  Craigs  seem  inclined  to  be  to  me.  I  shall  do  nothing 
conspicuous,  nothing  that  is  really  disrespectful  to  grand- 
papa, but  I  feel  as  if  I  could  not  go  on  living  the  shut-in 
life  of  the  past  few  months,  now  that  there  is  no  longer 


I°6  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

any  necessity  for  it.  And  while,  as  I  said,  it  grieves  me  to 
annoy  you,  I  must  use  my  own  judgment  about  some  things, 
and  I  think  we  shall  be  better  friends  if  we  avoid  useless 
discussion." 

Mrs.  Hardcastle  was  a  kind-hearted  woman,  and  although 
she  could  not,  generally  speaking,  be  called  a  wise  one,  she 
had  what  her  older  daughter  called  "  streaks  of  wisdom  " 
in  her  character,  which  sometimes  stood  her  in  good  stead, 
and  one  of  these  streaks,  coupled  with  a  real  pity  for 
Muriel,  came  to  her  rescue  now. 

"  My  dear,"  she  said,  with  sudden  tears  in  her  eyes,  "  I 
must  have  been  blind  not  to  see  what  an  ordeal  you  were 
passing  through,  and  I  hope  I  should  be  the  last  person  in 
the  world  to  wish  to  deprive  you  of  happiness  now  ;  it  is 
just  because,  after  a  little  while,  when  you  begin  to  go  into 
society,  public  opinion  will  have  so  much  to  do  with  your 
popularity  that  I  am  anxious  to  guard  you  from  making 
mistakes  now.  Surely  these  new  friends  of  yours  could  be 
made  to  understand  that,  while  you  are  not  visiting,  you 
will  be  glad  to  receive  their  visits.  But  I  have  laid  the 
whole  matter  before  you  now,  and  there  is  nothing  more 
that  I  can  do  about  it,  so  I  will  say  no  more.  I  have  a 
message  from  Julia  for  you  ;  she  wants  you — and  we  all 
do — to  come  to-morrow  for  the  day  and  night.  You  will, 
will  you  not  ?  There  will  be  no  one  else  there,  of  course, 
and  your  uncle  counts  upon  the  visit  ;  he  is  so  dreadfully 
busy  just  now  that  he  does  not  get  any  time  for  visiting 
himself,  so  he  told  me  to  tell  you  that  he  is  an  old  man  / 
now,  and  it  is  your  duty  to  come  and  see  him." 

"  Thank  you,  said  Muriel,  "  I  shall    like  to  come  very  * 
much.    It  is  kind  of  you  to  want  me.    Give  my  love  to  Julia, 
please,  and  tell  her  I  will  come  with  much  pleasure." 

Mrs.  Hardcastle  rose  to  go,  but  the  ordeal  was  not  quite 
over  yet. 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  107 

"  I  hear  you  are  talking  of  adding  a  conservatory  to  the 
house,"  she  said,  as  she  moved  slowly  toward  the  door.  "  It 
would  be  very  delightful,  of  course,  but,  my  dear,  I  wonder 
if  you  have  any  idea  of  the  expenses  into  which  one  is  led, 
if  one  attempts  to  have  so  much  as  a  bow-window  built  ? 
Pray  consider  the  matter  well,  before  undertaking  it." 

"  I  will,"  said  Muriel,  in  a  manner  which  cut  short  all 
further  discussion  of  the  question,  and  of  which  she  was 
afterward  ashamed.  But  she  was  indignant,  too,  for  when 
she  thought  the  matter  over,  puzzled  as  to  how  her  aunt 
had  discovered  her  intention,  she  was  forced — or  thought 
she  was — to  the  conclusion  that  Julia  had  been  the  in- 
former. They  had  talked  about  the  matter,  and  Muriel  once 
more  blamed  herself  for  her  too  great  readiness,  if  not  ex- 
actly to  confide  in  people,  at  least  to  tell  them  much  that  it 
would  be  wiser  not  to  tell.  She  had  not  bound  Julia  over 
to  keep  the  peace  about  any  of  the  numerous  matters 
which  they  had  discussed,  but  she  felt  that  a  real  friend 
does  not  need  any  such  injunction,  and  she  made  a  hasty 
resolve  to  talk,  henceforth,  only  upon  the  most  common- 
place subjects  with  her  aunt  and  cousins.  She  brooded 
over  the  matter  until  she  deeply  regretted  having  accepted 
Julia's  invitation,  and  was  rejoiced  to  remember,  what  she 
had  honestly  forgotten  when  she  did  accept  it,  that  she  had 
promised  to  go  with  Miss  Post,  the  next  afternoon,  for  a 
second  visit  to  the  oculist,  who,  after  making  his  examina- 
tion, had  not  announced  the  result,  but  merely  arranged  to 
see  his  patient  again.  The  appointment  was  for  four  o'clock, 
and  as  the  office  was  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  city  from 
Muriel's  home,  she  decided  that  she  had  an  all-sufficient  ex- 
cuse for  retracting  her  promise  to  Julia.  She  wrote  a  brief 
note,  which  she  vainly  tried  to  make  cordial,  pleading  the 
forgotten  engagement,  but  somehow  she  did  not  feel  very 
well  satisfied  with  herself,  and  even  went  to  the  hall  to  take 


I08  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

back  the  note,  that  she  might  at  least  modify  the  language, 
if  not  her  decision,  but  Rogers  had  already  posted  it,  so  she 
endeavored  to  convince  herself  that  this  settled  the  matter, 
and  made  farther  thought  about  it  useless.  She  really 
had  forgotten  the  engagement,  and  what  more  was  nec- 
essary ?  She  resolved  to  take  a  long  walk  after  lunch,  for 
it  was  a  bright,  cheerful  March  day,  with  a  brisk  wind 
blowing,  and  she  had  recently  decided  that  she  did  not  take 
exercise  enough,  and  was  growing  morbid. 

She  was  just  ready  to  leave  her  room  when,  somewhat  to 
her  dismay,  "  Miss  Hardcastle's  "  card  was  brought  to  her. 
She  went  down  with  her  bonnet  on,  and  her  gloves  in  her 
hand,  and  Julia  said,  almost  immediately,  as  Muriel  had 
hoped  and  expected  that  she  would  : 

"  You  were  just  going  out,  weren't  you?  Do  not  let  me 
keep  you,  it  is  such  a  pleasant  day,  after  all  the  storms,  that 
it  really  seems  wrong  to  stay  in  the  house." 

"  I  was  only  going  for  a  walk,"  said  Muriel.  "  I  had  no 
engagement  with  any  body  but  myself,  I  assure  you  " 

"  I  meant  to  walk,  too,  after  I  had  seen  you,"  replied 
Julia,  "  I  am  making  a  point  of  walking  at  least  two  miles 
every  day,  now,  and  I  feel  a  great  deal  better  for  it,  already. 
If  that  is  not  too  far  for  you,  suppose  we  go  together  ?  " 

"  No,  I  expected  to  walk  quite  as  far  as  that,"  said 
Muriel.  "  Which  way  were  you  going  ? " 

"  I  had  a  sort  of  half-formed  plan  to  explore  that  curious 
old  burial-ground  at  Copp's  Hill,"  replied  Julia.  "  Papa  was 
talking  about  it  last  night,  and  casually  remarked  that  Kate 
and  I  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  ourselves  for  knowing  so  little 
about  the  '  historic  portions '  of  the  city.  I  have  only  a 
very  general  idea  as  to  where  it  is,  but  no  doubt  we  can  find 
it,  if  we're  not  too  proud  to  ask  our  way  of  all  we  meet." 

"We  need  not  do  that,"  said  Muriel,  "Uncle  took  me 
there  once,  ever  so  long  ago,  and  it  is  worth  seeing.  We 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  109 

can  go  a  good  deal  of  the  way  on  Washington  Street,  and 
though  I  don't  quite  remember  the  names  of  the  other 
streets,  I  am  sure  I  shall  know  them  when  I  see  them.  But 
we  should  have  started  earlier — uncle  and  I  went  most  of 
the  way  in  a  street  car,  and  it  seemed  a  long  distance  even 
then." 

"  Oh  well,  we  can  ride  back  if  we  find  it  is  too  late  to 
walk.  It's  nice  to  have  an  object  in  view,  even  if  one 
doesn't  attain  it." 

Julia's  manner  had  been  easy  and  pleasant,  as  it  always 
was,  and  she  had  not  appeared  to  notice  Muriel's  constraint, 
but  as  soon  as  they  were  in  the  street,  she  said  : 

"  We  were  so  sorry  to  find  that  you  can  not  come,  after 
all,  to-morrow.  Mamma  received  your  note  just  before  I 
started.  But  Muriel — my  mind  misgives  me  that  you  were 
very  glad  to  remember  that  engagement,  and  I  am  afraid 
mamma  bored  you  !  Had  she  any  especial  mission,  or  was 
it  merely  on  general  principles  ?  " 

Julia's  tone  was  so  frank  and  friendly  that  Muriel  found 
it  impossible  to  be  dignified.  She  even  caught  herself 
smiling  at  the  unbiased  and  impartial  manner  in  which 
"  mamma's  "  daughter  had  stated  the  case,  and  the  smile 
remained,  as  she  said,  "  Aunt  Matilda  had  two  especial  mis- 
sions. She  thinks  it  highly  improper  that  I  should  visit 
any  one  outside  the  family,  and  she  is  alarmed  at  the  idea  of 
my  '  building' — even  to  the  small  extent  which  a  conserva- 
tory implies." 

"  Now,  I  should  just  like  to  know,"  said  Julia,  looking 
very  much  vexed,  "  who  could  have  told  mamma  about  your 
conservatory  idea  !  I  was  particularly  careful  not  to  men- 
tion that  at  home,  for  I  knew  what  the  result  would  be,  and 
I  think  you  have  suffered  quite  enough  from  '  judicious 
advice.'  You  see  I  really  do  think,  once  in  awhile  !  Of 
course,  you  must  have  thought  that  it  was  I  who  told  mam- 


HO  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

ma  about  your  plan,  and  I  don't  at  all  wonder  that  the  more 
you  thought  of  it  the  less  you  wished  to  come.  I  do  wish 
mamma  could  be  made  to  understand,  once  for  all,  that  she 
isn't  responsible  for  you  !  " 

Julia's  tone,  as  she  said  this,  jarred  upon  Muriel  more 
even  than  the  words  did  ;  but  in  spite  of  that,  she  was  greatly 
pleased  to  find  that  Julia  had  not  been  Mrs.  Hardcastle's 
informant,  and  said  so.  The  subject  was  then  dropped,  ap- 
parently by  mutual  consent,  but  about  half  an  hour  later, 
Julia  exclaimed  abruptly  : 

"  I  have  it  !  It  was  Douglas  Keith  who  told  mamma 
about  the  conservatory.  I  remember  all  about  it,  now.  I 
thought,  at  the  time,  that  he  didn't  know  what  an  ill  turn 
he  was  doing  you  !  " 

"  Oh  well !  "  said  Muriel,  trying  to  speak  lightly,  but  not 
succeeding  very  well,  " '  what's  done  can't  be  helped,'  and 
I  will  try  and  think  no  more  about  it.  See,  here  is  the  old 
graveyard.  Uncle  said  that  when  he  was  a  boy  some  of  the 
stones  had  bullet  marks  on  them  from  Revolutionary  times. 
I  wish  stones  lasted  in  this  country  as  they  do  in  Egypt. 
I  saw  such  a  droll  thing  in  the  paper  the  other  day  about 
the  obelisk  ;  it  wasn't  meant  for  a  funny  paragraph  at  all, 
but  it  said  the  obelisk  had  '  suffered  more  from  the  weather ' 
in  the  short  time  since  it  came  to  this  country,  than  it  had 
in  all  its  hundreds  of  years  in  Egypt  !  There's  a  tribute 
to  the  great  American  climate  for  you  !  " 

It  was  so  plain  that  Muriel  wished  no  further  discussion  of 
her  affairs,  that  Julia  made  no  attempt  to  recur  to  the  subject, 
and,  as  she  was  never  at  a  loss  for  conversation  if  any  one 
would  do  a  very  small  amount  of  responding,  the  ride  home 
was  cheerful  enough  outwardly.  It  was  quite  too  late  for 
walking  back,  and  Julia  said  she  should  be  a  little  late  for 
dinner,  but  would  make  her  peace  by  talking  antiquities  to 
her  father. 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  Ill 

"  Can't  you  come  day  after  to-morrow  for  that  visit, 
Muriel,  since  to-morrow  is  '  took  up  ? '  "  she  asked,  as  they 
were  about  to  part. 

And  Muriel,  afraid  of  seeming  ungracious  should  she 
refuse,  agreed  to  do  so. 

She  decided,  over  her  solitary  dinner,  that  she  was  not  at 
all  pleased  with  Mr.  Keith. 

"  I  wonder  if  he  discusses  the  affairs  of  all  his  clients 
with  equal  freedom,"  she  said  to  herself.  "  I  should  not 
think  he  would  have  any  long,  if  he  does.  I  shall  most 
certainly  wait  for  his  father  the  next  time  I  want  any  infor- 
mation or  advice." 

"  You've  walked  too  far  this  afternoon,  I  doubt,  Miss 
Muriel,"  said  Margery,  with  a  scrutinizing  look  at  Muriel's 
face.  She  had  come  in  on  some  pretext  about  the  house- 
keeping, and  was  lingering,  as  if  loath  to  leave  her  "  bairn  " 
alone. 

"  Perhaps  I  have,"  replied  Muriel,  smiling  at  Margery's 
anxious  face,  "  but  there's  no  damage  done  that  a  night's 
rest  will  not  repair,  so  you  needn't  look  so  distressed  about 
it.  And,  Margery,  it  isn't  quite  dark  yet —  I  wish  you'd 
take  these  flowers  to  that  little  lame  boy  you  were  telling 
me  about  yesterday,  and  try  to  find  out  if  something  can't 
be  done  for  him — perhaps  he  can  be  cured." 

"  He's  past  that,  I'm  afraid,"  said  Margery,  seriously ; 
"  but  he'll  be  glad  enough  of  the  flowers.  Am  I  to  take 
them  all,  Miss  Muriel  ?  " 

"  No  ;  you  can  leave  a  few  of  the  pansies  and  a  little 
green,  please.  Take  all  the  rest." 

And  as  soon  as  Margery  was  gone  Muriel  gathered  up 
the  remnant  of  the  flowers  and  sought  Miss  Post's  room, 
with  a  hope,  which  she  did  not  acknowledge  even  to  her- 
self, that  something  in  the  reading  or  talk  would  come 
home  to  her.  She  did  not  come  upon  any  thing  very  special 


H2  IV A  YS  AND  MEANS. 

in  either,  but  Miss  Post's  peaceful,  happy  face,  as  she  sat  un- 
consciously stroking  her  lame  hand,  which  had  been  very 
lame  that  day,  sent  her  to  bed  calmed  and  comforted. 
Peace  existed,  of  that  there  could  be  no  doubt,  and  she 
would  find  it  some  day. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

MAKING    FRIENDS. 

14  The  like  will  seek  the  like." 

— E.  B.  BROWNING. 

MURIEL  and  May  had  had  more  than  one  talk  in 
their  frequent  meetings,  on  the  subject  of  securing 
Aunt  Sally  as  a  companion  for  the  former,  and  the  best  way 
of  bringing  this  about,  until  at  last  Muriel  declared  that 
she  was  tired  of  waiting  and  considering  ;  that  nothing,  so 
far  as  she  could  see,  was  gained  by  delay ;  and  that  she 
meant  just  to  lay  the  whole  case  before  Aunt  Sally,  and 
take  the  consequences. 

"  I  suppose  that  will  be  best,"  said  May,  a  little  doubt- 
fully, "but  I  have  kept  hoping  that  something  would 
demonstrate  to  Aunt  Sally  the  fitness  of  this  '  mission  '  for 
her,  before  you  actually  asked  the  question.  You  see,  I 
have  had  one  or  two  rather  severe  lessons  on  picking  things 
before  they  were  ripe." 

"  That  sounds  very  wise-like,"  said  Muriel,  laughing, 
"  and  you  know  I  am  generally  as  wax  in  your  hands,  but 
this  time  I  feel  inclined  to  go  my  own  gait.  The  more  I 
see  of  Aunt  Sally,  the  more  certain  I  feel  that  this  will  be 
the  best  way." 

"  Very  well  !  "  said  May,  resignedly,  "  but  don't  come  to 
me  for  comfort,  when  you  return  a  blighted  being,  from 
your  too  rash  quest." 

"  If  I  return  you  mean.     Indeed  I  shall,  and  you  will  give 


H4  WAYS  A.\D  MEANS. 

it  to  me,  too.    I  am  going  to-morrow  afternoon  just  in  time  for 
them  to  ask  me  to  stay  to  tea.     Do  you  believe  they  will  ? " 

"  I  do.  Aunt  Sally  would  ask  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  take 
off  his  overcoat  and  stay  to  tea,  if  he  should  happen  along 
within  half  an  hour  of  tea-time,  much  as  she  disapproves 
of  him — and  she  does  not  disapprove  of  you,  at  all,  but  quite 
'  contrariwise.'  Shall  you  make  your  attack  in  full  family 
conclave  and  take  the  consequences  ?" 

"  I  don't  know.  I  can't  tell  beforehand.  I  shall  just 
'  proceed  as  the  way  opens.'  ' 

"  You'll  write  me  a  line  when  you  return  ?  I'll  let  you 
use  a  postal-card  this  once,  Muriel,  for  you  need  only  say 
yes  or  no,  and  if  Rogers  posts  it  at  once,  I  shall  receive  it 
before  I  go  to  school  in  the  morning." 

"  What  frightful  inconsistency.  You  are  morally  certain 
of  the  result  of  my  rashness,  and  yet  you  are  willing  to  have 
a  postal-card  sent  you  in  your  eagerness  to  hear  it.  Well,  I 
will  write  you  the  '  line,'  but  it  wil!  be  upon  a  decent  card, 
and  in  a  decent  envelope.  When  I  find  I  haven't  time  to 
seal  my  envelopes,  I  shall  employ  a  keeper  of  the  seal." 

Muriel  decided  to  go  upon  her  "quest"  a  little  earlier 
than  she  had  at  first  intended,  the  following  afternoon,  for 
after  all,  her  acquaintance  with  the  Raymonds  was  of  such 
recent  date,  that  it  would  perhaps  be  intrusive  to  stay  to 
tea,  even  should  she  be  invited.  So  she  set  forth  soon 
after  four  o'clock,  resolutely  restraining  herself  from  trying 
to  arrange  in  her  mind  what  she  should  say  to  Aunt  Sally. 
Her  heart  was  very  much  bent  upon  succeeding.  The  more 
she  saw  of  Aunt  Sally  the  more  it  seemed  to  her  that  this 
wise,  experienced,  energetic  woman,  with  her  large  heart, 
and  sound  judgment,  was  the  ideal  prime  minister  for  her 
small  kingdom,  and  she  tried  to  prepare  her  mind  for  the 
disappointment  which  a  refusal  would  give  her,  while,  at 
the  same  time,  she  counted  up  her  chances  of  success. 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  115 

Circumstances  favored  her  in  one  way.  Aunt  Sally  was 
entirely  alone.  Alice  was  spending  the  day  with  Rose, 
Marion  and  Dick  had  agreed  to  meet  after  school,  and  take 
as  long  a  walk  as  their  limited  time  permitted,  and  that  it 
might  be  a  little  longer,  Aunt  Sally  had  magnanimously 
promised  to  postpone  tea  until  half-past  seven,  for  there 
was  "  a  moon,"  and  the  spring-like  air  would  make  the  early 
evening  very  pleasant. 

"  So  now,  my  dear,"  she  said,  after  she  had  explained 
the  position  to  Muriel,  "  I'll  not  apologize  to  you  for  having 
nobody  but  myself  to  entertain  you  with,  for  I  have  wanted 
a  chance  for  a  right  good  talk  with  you,  and  we  couldn't 
have  a  better.  Take  off  your  bonnet  and  whatever  you  call 
your  wrap — I've  lost  the  run  of  the  things  women  wear  now, 
and  the  outlandish  names  they  give  them — and  if  I  can't 
give  you  a  dinner,  I  can  give  you  a  good  hearty  tea,  and  it 
amounts  to  about  the  same  thing,!  reckon. 

"  Would  you  really  like  me  to  stay  ? "  asked  Muriel,  hesi- 
tating a  little,  "  I  should  love  to,  dearly,  but  wouldn't  your 
nieces  think " 

"  If  I  wouldn't  really  like  you  to  stay,  I  should  not  ask 
you,  and  Alice  and  Marion  aren't  very  old  yet,  but  they're 
pretty  sensible  for  their  ages,  I  think.  Come,  give  me 
your  things,  child.  This  is  a  free  settlement,  and  we  do  as 
we  please  here,  so  long  as  what  we  do  doesn't  worry  any 
body  else." 

"  That  is  very  nice,"  said  Muriel,  laughing,  "  and  I  will 
stay  with  pleasure,  but  I  am  afraid  I  must  go  to  the  nearest 
district  telegraph  station,  and  send  word  for  Rogers  to  come 
for  me  this  evening,  before  I  take  my  bonnet  off.  I  didn't 
think  to  tell  Margery  where  I  was  going." 

"  There  is  no  need  of  that,"  said  Aunt  Sally,  "  Dick  will 
like  to  take  you  home,  if  you  will  let  him.  He  wants  to  be 
friends  with  you,  and  I'm  always  glad  when  a  boy  begins  to 


Il6  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

make  girl-friends  ;  it's  both  civilizing  and  enlightening  for 
him  !  And  you'll  not  find  it  any  hardship,  I  think,  to  be 
friends  with  my  boy  !  " 

"  Indeed  I  shall  not  !  "  said  Muriel,  warmly,  and  taking 
off  gloves  and  bonnet  as  she  spoke,  "  I  like  him  so  much, 
although  I  have  only  met  him  three  or  four  times.  I  have 
always  mourned  over  not  having  any  brother  ;  it  must  be 
such  a  comfort  to  have  one — a  nice  one.  And  what  struck 
me  about  Dick  most  particularly  was,  that  although  he  is 
hardly  out  of  the  '  awkward  age  '  yet,  his  manner  to  you, 
and  to  his  sisters,  is  so  very  gentle  and  pleasant." 

The  deepest  policy  could  not  have  inspired  Muriel  with  a 
speech  which  would  have  made  a  more  favorable  impression 
than  this  perfectly  artless  one  produced.  Aunt  Sally  beamed 
as  she  replied  : 

"  I  wouldn't  give  much  for  a  boy  who  kept  all  his  good 
manners  for  outsiders.  And  I've  long  had  a  theory  that 
there  need  not  be  any  'awkward  age,'  at  least  not  one  that 
will  annoy  other  people.  Of  course,  a  boy  who  has  never 
been  anywhere,  or  seen  any  thing  to  speak  of  will  feel  awk- 
ward at  times,  and  will  not  always  do  and  say  the  right 
thing  at  the  right  time,  but  after  all,  right  feeling  and  un- 
selfishness will  give  a  better  manner  than  any  amount  of 
veneering  and  varnishing.  Now,  if  the  girls  were  here, 
they'd  be  laughing  at  me.  They  think  I'm  foolish  about 
Dick,  and  maybe  I  am,  we  are  not  apt  to  know  our  own  fool- 
ishnesses, but  you  see,  he  is  the  youngest,  and  I  feel  as  if 
I'd  had  some  hand  in  bringing  him  up.  But  I'm  not  going 
to  say  another  word  about  him  this  time  ;  I  haven't  asked 
you  how  Miss  Post's  eyes  are,  and  what  Dr.  Ellis  says  about 
them.  I  have  been  afraid  for  sometime  that  there  was 
something  pretty  serious  the  matter  with  them." 

"  There  is."  said  Muriel,  sadly.  "  He  says  it  is  cataract, 
and  that  it  will  be  some  months  yet,  before  he  can  perform 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  II? 

any  operation,  even  should  he  think  it  best  to  do  so  eventu- 
ally, and  meanwhile,  her  sight  will  be  growing  dimmer  all 
the  time,  until  she  becomes  quite  blind." 

"  I  thought  they  could  always  operate  for  cataract,"  said 
Aunt  Sally, "  Did  he  give  any  reason  for  being  doubtful 
about  it." 

"  Yes,  and  that  was  the  worst  of  all  !  He  said  Miss  Post 
was  in  such  a  reduced  condition,  physically,  that  it  might 
not  be  safe  to  risk  the  shock  ;  that  she  has  evidently  over- 
worked herself,  and  not  eaten  enough  nourishing  food  for 
months  past.  I  was  puzzled  at  first  about  the  overworking, 
for  she  had  told  me  that  she  never  got  sewing  enough  of 
late  to  keep  her  busy  all  the  time,  and  then  it  suddenly  oc- 
curred to  me  that  she  had,  of  course,  done  her  own  washing 
and  ironing,  and  carried  up  coal  and  water,  and  to  a  woman 
as  fragile  as  she  seems  to  be,  that  must  have  been  dreadfully 
hard  work.  And  I  really  don't  suppose  she  has  eaten  meat 
more  than  once  a  week,  for  months,  except  when  Miss 
Forsythe  would  ask  her  to  tea,  or  she  went  out  to  work. 
And  lately,  I  know,  most  of  her  work  has  been  given  her  to 
take  home.  I  asked  Dr  Ellis  if  it  would  increase  her  chance 
if  she  would  take  plenty  of  nourishing  things  in  the  inter- 
val, and  save  herself  in  every  way,  and  he  said,  of  course  it 
would,  that  if  she  would  do  that,  he  felt  pretty  confident  of 
being  able  to  do  it,  so  that  is  a  great  comfort.  And,  Aunt 
Sally,  I  wanted  to  ask  you,  do  you  know  of  any  nice  little 
girl,  twelve  or  thirteen  years  old,  to  whom  it  would  be  an 
advantage  to  have  an  easy  place  ?  I  want  one  just  to  wait 
on  Miss  Post,  and  she  could  learn  to  sew,  and  do  some  of 
the  nicer  house  work,  so  that,  when  I  don't  need  her  any 
longer,  or  if  I  don't,  I  could  easily  find  a  place  for  her." 

"  Yes,  I  think  1  do  ;  there's  a  very  respectable  Scotch 
family  living  in  the  alley  just  back  of  this  house  ;  they  have 
a  lame  son,  a  fine  young  fellow,  in  whom  we  are  all  inter- 


Il8  IV AYS  AND  MEANS. 

ested,  and,  poor  as  they  are,  they  took  an  orphan  child — a 
niece  of  the  woman's — the  other  day,  because  she  was  left 
without  a  home.  I've  seen  her  several  times,  and  I  like  the 
look  of  her.  She's  a  clean,  tidy,  low-speaking,  little  body, 
without  any  ugly  tricks,  so  far  as  I've  seen,  and  I  think  they 
would  be  very  glad  to  have  her  in  such  a  place  as  that 
would  be.  I  often  feel  ashamed  when  I  see  how  the  down- 
right poor  people  help  each  other  and  seem  to  think  its 
only  natural  and  right.  I  don't  suppose  it  crossed  the 
mind  of  these  people  of  whom  I  speak  that  they  might  send 
the  child  to  the  poor-house  ;  they  just  took  her,  as  a  matter 
of  course." 

"  I  know,"  said  Muriel ;  "  Margery  has  told  me  a  great 
many  such  things — things  that  make  me  wonder  how  any 
body  can  say  that  we  are  retrograding.  If  it  would  not  be 
giving  you  too  much  trouble  I  should  like  you  to  speak  first 
to  these  people  about  the  little  girl  for  me,  and  then,  if  they 
seem  to  favor  the  plan,  I  will  come  and  have  a  talk  with 
them  about  it." 

"  It  won't  be  any  trouble  at  all,  my  dear.  I  always  like 
to  go  there  ;  they  have  such  nice  Scotch  voices.  I'll  let 
you  know  as  soon  as  I  can  what  they  say,  though  I  have 
very  little  doubt  what  their  answer  will  be.  And  it's  a  very 
good  idea,  having  somebody  just  on  purpose  to  wait  on 
Miss  Post  ;  it  will  keep  the  servants  from  thinking  they're 
imposed  upon,  and  make  her  easy  in  her  mind  besides,  for 
she'll  want  a  good  deal  of  looking  after  as  she  grows  more 
blind.  What  a  mercy  it  is  that  you  found  her  just  when 
you  did,  though  I've  faith  to  believe  that  if  you  hadn't, 
somebody  else  would  have  done  it.  Still,  it  mightn't  have 
been  any  body  who  was  as  able  as  you  are  to  do  it  right." 

The  thing  that  pleased  Muriel  most,  in  recalling  this  con- 
versation, was  the  manner  in  which  Aunt  Sally  had  spoken 
of  what  she — Muriel — was  doing  for  Miss  Post.  There  had 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  1 19 

been  no  surprise,  no  flattering  comment,  but  just  a  quiet 
taking  for  granted  that  it  was  the  natural  and  proper  thing 
to  do. 

"  I  wonder  why  we  couldn't  all  have  been  born  sensible  ?  " 
she  mused  ;  "  it  would  have  saved  such  a  vast  deal  of 
trouble  and  work." 

But,  following  out  the  thought,  she  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  common-sense,  like  a  foreign  language,  might 
be  so  thoroughly  acquired  as  almost  to  seem  native,  and 
she  further  decided  that  nobody  had  so  much  as  to  be  able 
to  afford  to  give  up  cultivating  it. 

It  occurred  to  her,  as  Aunt  Sally  paused,  after  the 
above  remarks,  that  she  could  not  possibly  find  a  better 
moment  to  urge  her  plea. 

"  Aunt  Sally,"  she  began,  abruptly,  "  I  have  a  favor,  a 
very  great  favor,  to  ask  of  you,  and  I  want  you  to  please  to 
listen  to  me  patiently  a  few  minutes,  while  I  explain  first. 
Will  you?" 

"  To  be  sure  I  will,  dear,  and  you  may  be  certain  it  will 
be  granted,  if  it's  any  thing  at  all  reasonable  and  right,  and 
I  don't  think  you  would  ask  for  what  wasn't  both." 

"  Thank  you.  I  am  glad  you  think  that.  I  don't  know 
whether  I  have  spoken  to  you  about  this  before  or  not,  but 
my  aunts  and  uncles,  when  I  was  first  left  alone,  seemed  to 
think  that  I  would  leave  the  house  at  once,  and  either 
board,  or  make  visits  among  my  relatives.  I  did  not  see 
any  reason  for  doing  so,  and  I  had  a  very  strong  reason  for 
staying  where  I  was.  Grandpapa  said  several  things  to  me 
during  the  last  few  weeks  of  his  life  which  made  me  know 
that  he  wished  me  to  do  good  with  his  money  after  it  be- 
came mine.  And  he  left  the  way  of  doing  it  entirely  to 
me.  It  seemed  to  me  that  I  could  do  a  great  deal  more 
and  find  a  great  many  more  opportunities  if  I  staid  where  I 
was,  and  I  think  so  still.  So  then,  when  they  found  I  did 


120  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

not  wish  to  close  the  house,  they  said  I  ought  to  have  a 
companion.  I  had  already  thought  so  myself,  only  I  don't 
think  we  meant  exactly  the  same  thing.  I  dared  not  ad- 
vertise, and  then  choose  some  one  hastily  and  on  a  slight 
acquaintance,  for  I  thought  how  very  unpleasant  it  would 
be  for  both  of  us  if  I  should  wish  to  send  her  away,  and  I 
did  not  want  a  '  companion '  in  the  common  acceptation  of 
the  word.  I  wanted  somebody  older  and  wiser  than  myself, 
who  would  be  able  to  advise  me  when  my  want  of  experi- 
ence troubled  me,  and  yet  some  one  who  would  be  a  real 
friend  whom  I  could  love  and  trust.  And  it  seemed  as  if 
I  could  not  possibly  find  the  right  person  until  I  heard 
about  you.  May  thought  of  you  before  I  met  you,  and  en- 
couraged me  to  ask  you  ;  I  should  never  have  dared  to  do 
it  but  for  her,  and  I  feel  very  impertinent  now,  for  it  is 
asking  such  a  great  thing,  and  I  know  your  '  children  '  will 
not  think  it  possible  to  do  without  you.  But  there  are 
three  of  them  ;  Miss  Raymond  has  had  you  long  enough  to 
know  all  your  ways,  and  in  a  measure  to  take  your  place  to 
the  other  two  and — I  want  you." 

Aunt  Sally  had  listened  with  praiseworthy  silence  and 
patience  to  this  long  speech,  and  when  it  was  finished  she 
seemed,  for  once  in  her  life,  at  a  loss  for  a  reply. 

"  My  dear,"  she  said,  at  last,  "  you've  taken  my  breath 
away,  even  more  than  my  '  children '  did  when  they  asked 
me  to  come  and  live  with  them  a  few  years  ago.  And 
whatever  I  may  find  it  right  to  do  in  the  matter,  I  shall 
always  thank  you  for  wanting  me.  I  can't  give  you  an 
answer  off-hand.  It's  a  matter  to  be  thought  over  and 
prayed  over  ;  but  I'm  free  to  confess  that  I  see  quite  as 
many  pros  as  cons.  And  that's  the  reason  why  I  must 
not  decide  in  a  hurry.  It  would  give  me  a  chance,  I  fore- 
see, to  carry  out  so  many  of  my  notions  and  to  do  so  many 
things  that  I've  wanted  for  years  to  do,  that  I  can't  trust 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  121 

my  own  judgment  about  it.  I  could  leave  the  children 
now,  though  it  would  be  a  good  deal  of  a  heartbreak  to  do 
it,  I'll  admit,  and  after  the  first  fuss  was  over,  they  would 
not  try  to  stand  in  my  way  if  they  saw  that  I  really  thought 
it  right  to  go.  Alice  is  a  very  good  housekeeper  and  man- 
ager, and  giving  music-lessons  is  not  like  school-teaching ; 
she  has  odd  hours  of  leisure  through  the  day,  when  she 
could  see  to  things,  and  I've  let  her  do  more  about  the 
house  than  I  ever  let  Rose  or  Marion  do,  for — several 
reasons.  But  I'll  not  bother  you  with  all  my  arguments  for 
and  against.  I  will  think  the  matter  over  very  carefully, 
and  ask  the  opinion  of  one  or  two  people  whose  opinion  is 
worth  asking.  And  I  will  give  you  my  answer  not  later 
than  a  week  from  to-day.  Will  that  do  ? " 

"  Indeed  it  will  !  "  said  Muriel,  joyfully,  "  I  was  so  afraid 
you  would  refuse  outright,  and  at  once,  that  I  consider  that 
a  very  good  answer  indeed.  And  Aunt  Sally,  you  must  let 
me  finish  the  business-part  of  the  talk  now,  and  then  all 
will  be  clear  and  straightforward.  When  they  first  talked 
to  me  about  having  a  'companion,'  I  made  inquiries  about 
the  salary  which  was  usually  given,  and  found  it  ranged 
from  three  to  five  hundred  dollars.  It  seemed  to  me  that 
was  very  little,  and  five  hundred,  at  least,  you  must  take,  if 
you  consent  to  come.  I'll  not  try  to  say  how  much  more 
your  presence  will  be  worth  to  me,  for  it  is  not  a  thing  that 
can  be  measured  against  money  ! " 

"  Now,  I  dare  say,"  said  Aunt  Sally,  meditatively,  "  that  if 
I  was  some  folks,  I  should  fly  out  about  your  offering  me  a 
salary,  and  say  that  if  I  lived  with  you  at  all,  it  would  be 
simply  as  a  friend.  But,  from  your  side  of  the  question, 
you're  right,  and  as  for  my  side,  I  must  consider  that  along 
with  the  rest.  The  children  have  never  given  me  money, 
but  they're  constantly  giving  me  money's  worth.  Between 
Christmas  and  birthdays,  they've  contrived  it  so  that  I've 


122  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

never  had  to  buy  any  clothes  since  I  came  to  them.  If  I 
lived  with  you  and  stopped  doing  housework — and  I'll  admit 
that  I  don't  find  it  quite  so  easy  as  I  did  five  years  ago,  for 
all  my  lameness  is  so  nearly  cured — I  should  wish  to  dress 
a  little  better  than  I  have  done,  for  your  sake,  and  that  would 
make  it  fair,  I  suppose,  that  you  should  give  me  enough  to 
buy  me  decent  clothes  ;  but  it  seems  to  me  that  five  hundred 
is  a  great  deal  too  much.  However,  we'll  not  try  to  settle 
any  thing  to-night.  You've  said  your  say,  and  said  it  like 
the  good,  sensible  girl  that  I  think  you  are,  and  as  for  my 
answer,  I  don't  doubt  I  shall  be  guided  right  about  it,  if  I 
lay  myself  open  to  guidance,  as  I  hope  to  do.  There, 
it's  striking  six,  and  I  must  begin  to  get  supper.  Would 
you  rather  stay  here  and  read  some  of  that  pile  of  trash 
on  the  table,  or  come  with  me,  and  may  be  help  me  a 
little?" 

"  Now  just  as  if  you  didn't  know  I  would  rather  come 
with  you  !  "  said  Muriel,  springing  up. 

"  What  a  delightful  little  kitchen  !  "  she  added,  as  Aunt 
Sally  opened  the  door  into  it,  and  proceeded  to  light  the 
kerosene  stove. 

"  Yes,  it's  pretty  good,  what  there  is  of  it !  "  replied  Aunt 
Sally,  looking  round  with  a  satisfied  expression — as  well 
she  might.  Everything  shone  that  could  be  made  to  shine. 
Every  thing  that  would  make  cooking  easy  to  do  was  there, 
in  the  smallest  possible  compass,  and  the  kerosene  stove, 
even  to  a  novice,  suggested  wonderful  capabilities.  Muriel 
looked  on  with  undisguised  admiration,  while  Aunt  Sally 
proceeded  to  stew  in  milk  the  boiled  potatoes  which  were 
waiting  for  her,  and  then,  when  she  had  them  simmering  to 
her  mind  on  one  division  of  the  stove,  to  broil  the  chops 
which  she  took  from  the  lower  compartment  of  her  pro- 
vision safe,  and  which,  under  her  skillful  management,  and 
inclosed  in  the  double  broiler,  cooked  tranquilly,  without 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  123 

sputtering  or  smoke,  while  the  kettle  "  came  to  a  boil "  on  the 
third  division  of  the  stove. 

"  We  don't  usually  have  suppers  so  much  like  dinners," 
she  explained,  as  her  practiced  hands  went  nimbly  from 
one  thing  to  another,  "  but  Alice  was  away  to-day,  and 
Marion  said  that  if  I  would  put  her  up  a  lunch,  she  could 
meet  Dick  a  little  sooner  for  their  walk  than  she  could  if 
they  came  home  to  dinner,  so  I  helped  Dick  eat  up  some 
cold  meat  at  noon,  and  kept  the  chops  and  potatoes  for 
tea,  and  I'm  right  glad  now  that  I  did,  for  I  suppose  you're 
like  every  body  else,  now,  and  have  jour  dinner  when  you 
used  to  have  your  tea." 

"  I  haven't  quite  made  up  my  mind  yet,"  said  Muriel,  "  I 
am  trying  a  late  dinner  because  it  leaves  a  better  shaped 
day,  but  I  find  that  after  dining  about  one  or  two  o'clock 
all  my  life  I  miss  my  dinner  at  lunch  time,  and  am  not  very 
anxious  for  it  in  the  evening.  I  mean  to  try  a  little  while 
longer,  and  then,  if  I  don't  grow  used  to  the  new  way,  I 
shall  go  back  to  the  old  one,  and  be  comfortably  old-fash- 
ioned. But  I  thought  you  were  going  to  let  me  help  you, 
Aunt  Sally  " 

"  Well,  so  I  am,  and  I  am  glad  to  hear  you  talk  so  sensi- 
bly. I  suppose,  if  folks  have  never  had  it  any  other  way, 
they  may  like  a  late  dinner  best,  but  nobody  can  make  me 
believe  that  it's  best  for  them  !  Here,  if  you'll  put  this 
apron  on,  and  turn  back  your  cuffs,  you  may  slice  these 
tomatoes  into  this  little  dish  for  me  ;  here's  a  nice  sharp 
knife  ;  take  care  you  don't  cut  your  fingers,  child  !  " 

"  What  nice  tomatoes  !  The  only  ones  I've  seen  in  the 
stores  this  spring  have  been  such  poor  little  things,  and  these 
are  almost  the  largest  I  ever  saw  !  " 

"  You  don't  suppose  I  bought  those  tomatoes  at  this  time 
of  year  !  "  said  Aunt  Sally,  indignantly.  "  No,  indeed  !  I 
put  up  two  dozen  jars  of  whole  ones  last  summer  at  Dove- 


124  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

dale,  just  on  purpose  for  slicing  and  frying,  and  those  that 
are  left  are  every  one  as  sound  as  a  dollar  here  in  April  ! 
Now  wash  your  hands  ;  here's  the  basin,  and  then  you  may 
cut  the  bread,  if  you'll  cut  it  thin,  and  I  wonder  if  you  could 
set  the  table  ?  " 

"  I  think  I  could,"  said  Muriel,  smiling,  and  Aunt  Sally 
proceeded  to  tell  her  where  to  find  tablecloth  and  dishes, 
while  she  herself  took  down  coffee-mill  and  coffee-pot,  an- 
nouncing : 

"  I  think  I'll  treat  you  all  to  a  little  coffee  this  evening. 
Dick  says  its  the  surest  sign  of  a  festivity,  when  he  smells 
coffee  on  our  landing,  and  as  this  will  be  the  first  time  you've 
broken  bread  with  us,  I'll  smother  my  convictions  again.  I 
suppose  you  drink  coffee  ?  Every  body  does  now — even  the 
people  who  say  they  can't." 

"  I  do  sometimes,"  said  Muriel,  coming  to  the  door  as 
she  spoke.  "  Grandmamma  never  would  let  me  have  it,  or  tea 
either,  because  she  said  it  would  '  ruin  my  complexion,'  and 
we  weren't  allowed  it  at  school,  but  I  used  to  take  it  some- 
times after  I  came  home  to  stay,  and  I  am  like  Dick,  the 
very  smell  of  it  suggests  festivity  to  me,  though  I  am  sure  I 
don't  know  why.  But  don't  trouble  to  make  it  just  because 
I'm  here,  Aunt  Sally.  I  do  not  drink  it  regularly,  and 
shall  not  miss  it  at  all." 

"  It  is  no  trouble,  child.  I  like  it  as  well  as  any  body 
does,  and  I  believe  I'm  always  glad  of  an  excuse  to  make  it, 
but  I'm  glad  you  weren't  allowed  it  while  you  were  growing 
and  studying.  I've  seen  children  that  weren't  much  more 
than  babies  allowed  to  drink  it,  and  it  was  made  nearly  as 
strong  as  it  was  for  their  fathers  and  mothers,  too,  and  I'm 
entirely  convinced  that  the  world  would  be  a  good  deal 
better  off  if  it  had  never  been  discovered,  or  tea  either." 

Voices  and  steps  on  the  stairway  cut  short  Aunt  Sally's 
disquisition,  and  presently  Marion  and  Dick  appeared  arm- 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  125 

in-arm,  and  flushed  with  exercise  and  health.  They  seemed 
so  genuinely  pleased  to  find  Muriel  there,  and  to  learn  that 
she  was  going  to  stay  to  tea,  that  her  conscience  smote  her. 
What  would  they  say  when  they  learned  what  her  errand 
had  been  ?  However,  to  her  great  relief,  she  soon  found 
that  Aunt  Sally  had  no  intention  of  mentioning  it  in  her 
presence,  so  she  gave  herself  up  to  the  enjoyment  of  the 
hour,  trying  not  to  think  of  the  lonely  breakfast  which  would 
seem  all  the  lonelier  by  contrast  with  this  cheerful  meal. 
Marion  and  Dick  were  full  of  the  delights  and  discoveries  of 
their  walk,  and  had  brought  home  sundry  bare-looking  twigs, 
which  they  were  quite  confident  would  "  come  out,"  if  they 
were  put  in  warmish  water  and  set  in  the  sun  every  day. 

"  I  shall  fill  my  pockets  with  onion-sets  and  radish-seed, 
and  abscond  to  Dovedale,  if  we  have  a  few  more  days  of 
this  weather,"  said  Dick.  "  How  anybody  in  his  senses  can 
deliberately  elect  to  live  in  a  city,  when  he  might  live  in  the 
country,  is  one  of  the  standing  puzzles  of  my  life." 

"You  needn't  worry  about  the  weather,"  said  Aunt  Sally. 
"  If  you  had  rheumatism  in  your  knee,  you'd  be  very  sure 
that  we're  not  going  to  have  more  than  one  more  clear  day 
this  trip  !  But  I've  been  thinking,  myself,  that  it  wouldn't 
be  a  bad  plan  for  you  to  go  there  for  a  few  days  in  your 
Easter  holidays,  and  make  sure  that  Joe  is  planting  every 
thing  we  shall  want  in  the  garden." 

"  Aunt  Sally,  you  are  an  angel !  "  said  Dick,  enthusiasti- 
cally, "  I  have  been  cherishing  that  very  thought  for  days, 
without  daring  to  announce  it.  You  shall  have  an  extra 
row  of  okras  planted,  for  that.  You  know  you  said  the  other 
day  that  you  could  have  used  twice  as  many  this  winter,  if 
you'd  had  them." 

"  It  must  be  very  entertaining  to  have  a  garden,"  said 
Muriel.  "  I  always  wanted  one,  but  never  had  it,  and  I've 
been  thinking  quite  seriously  this  spring  of  stealing  a  little 


126  WAYS  AND   MEANS. 

piece  off  the  '  lawn,'  as  Rogers  persists  in  calling  the  grass- 
plot,  quite  at  the  back,  where  it  would  be  inconspicuous 
from  the  street,  and  having  a  little  kitchen  garden.  Is  it 
too  late  to  plant  radishes,  and — and — onions,  and  tomato- 
vines,  Dick  ? " 

"  No,  indeed  !  "  replied  Dick,  with  eager  interest.  "  And 
I'll  tell  you  what,  Miss  Muriel,  if  you'll  let  me  come  and 
mark  off  that  piece  of  ground,  and  dig  it  up,  and  plant  the 
first  things  in  it  next  Saturday,  you'll  be  doing  an  act  of 
Christain  charity." 

Aunt  Sally  did  not  exactly  wink  at  Muriel,  but  she  "  made 
a  face,"  and  Muriel  understood  it. 

"  Will  you,  really  ? "  she  said,  "  and  let  me  plant  some  of 
the  things,  and  show  me  how  to  hoe  and  rake  ?  You're  sure 
you  can  spare  the  time  ?  " 

"Quite  sure!"  said  Dick,  emphatically;  "and,  Miss 
Muriel,  it's  too  soon  yet  to  plant  any  thing  but  the  onion- 
sets  and  radishes,  and  some  spinach  and  lettuce,  and  a  few 
things  like  that,  but  when  I  go  to  Dovedale  in  the  Easter 
holidays,  I'll  bring  you  some  prime  tomato-plants — better 
than  any  you  can  get  here,  and  set  them  out  for  you  so  that 
they'll  be  sure  to  grow.  Joe  and  I  planted  the  hot-bed 
when  I  was  there  in  the  Christmas  holidays,  and  it's  flourish- 
ing, he  writes  me." 

"  I  think  you  are  very  kind  indeed,"  said  Muriel,  grate- 
fully, "  and  you  don't  know  how  I  shall  enjoy  having  a 
garden  !  I  mean  to  have  more  flower-beds  laid  out  this 
spring,  too.  I  want  to  raise  flowers  and  roots  to  give  away." 

"  That's  a  good  idea,"  said  Aunt  Sally,  approvingly,  "  it  goes 
vo  my  heart  to  see  how  people  who  can't  get  flowers  seem  to 
crave  them.  The  children  sent  a  good  many  boxes  of  wild- 
flowers  from  Dovedale  last  summer,  and  the  summer  before, 
too,  and  we  were  fortunate  enough  to  have  them  distributed 
in  places  which  even  the  flower-mission  doesn't  often  reach." 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  l2^ 

"  How  did  you  manage  ? "  asked  Muriel,  with  quick  and 
genuine  interest. 

"We  have  a  friend,"  replied  Aunt  Sally,  "a  sort  of  self- 
appointed  city  missionary,  and  he  used  to  take  the  flowers 
in  his  hand,  a  great  bunch  at  a  time,  and  walk  through 
some  of  the  worst  alleys  in  Boston,  and  when  the  poor  little, 
dirty,  ragged  children  swarmed  round  himwith,  'Give  me 
a  flower,  please ;  give  me  a  flower  ! "  he  just  gave  them ; 
and  before  the  first  summer  was  over  he  knew  a  good  many 
of  the  children  by  sight,  and  by  name,  too,  and  they  knew 
him  ;  and  after  awhile  he'd  stop  and  have  a  little  talk  with 
them,  and  so  he  sort  of  worked  it  on  gradually  from  one 
thing  to  another,  till  he  found  decent  homes  for  some  of 
them,  and  places  for  others  to  work  in,  and  gave  a  good  m^.ny 
of  them  the  first  idea  they'd  ever  had  of  Christ  and  His  reli- 
gion. I  don't  think  any  body  in  this  world  will  ever  know 
the  good  that  young  man  has  done,  and  is  doing,  in  quiet 
ways  that  aren't  often  thought  of." 

"  Is  he  a  minister  ? "  Muriel  inquired. 

"  No,  he's  not,  in  the  usual  sense  of  the  word,"  said  Aunt 
Sally ;  "  he's  a  clerk  in  a  wholesale  drygoods  store,  with  a 
salary  of  eight  hundred  dollars  a  year  !  " 

"  A  bookkeeper,  aunty,"  said  Marion,  quickly. 

"Well,  child,  where's  the  difference  ?  At  any  rate,  I've 
a  notion  that  he  gives  away  about  half  of  his  salary,  and 
though  he  always  looks  as  neat  as  wax,  and  nobody 'd  mis- 
take him  for  any  thing  but  a  gentleman,  you  can  see  that  he 
doesn't  get  new  clothes  every  time  the  fashion  changes." 

"  What  is  his  name  ?  "  asked  Muriel. 

"  Neil  Duncan.  One's  an  Irish  name  and  the  other  a 
Scotch  one,  and  I've  often  thought  the  Irish  couldn't  be  so 
very  far  back,  he  takes  life  so  easily,  and  has  such  a  keen 
sense  of  fun.  I  think  that  is  one  secret  of  his  success 
among  the  children.  He's  a  good  deal  of  a  child  himself 


128  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

in  some  ways,  although  he  can't  be  less  than  thirty  years 
old,  I  should  think,  in  reality." 

"  I  think  it  is  beautiful  about  the  flowers,"  said  Muriel ; 
"  I  am  so  glad  he  thought  of  it.  Does  any  one  send  them 
to  him  in  winter,  I  wonder  ? " 

"  Not  that  I  know  of.  That's  one  fault  I  have  to  find 
with  him  ;  it's  about  the  only  one  ;  he  never  will  ask  for 
any  thing,  and  there  are  plenty  of  people  who  would  be  glad 
of  the  chance  to  give  through  his  agency,  if  he'd  only  let 
them  know  ;  but  I  believe  he'd  take  the  coat  off  his  back 
before  he'd  ask  any  body  for  help." 

"  I  think  that  is  a  great  pity,"  said  Muriel,  thoughtfully, 
"  both  on  his  own  account  and  on  that  of  the  people  he 
deprives  of  help.  Will  you  please  give  me  his  address, 
Aunt  Sally?  If  I  ever  carry  out  my  scheme  about  the  tem- 
perance saloons,  he  would  be  the  very  person  to  tell  me  of 
the  best  places  for  them,  wouldn't  he  ? " 

"  Yes,  I  think  he  would.  I'll  write  you  the  address  after 
tea,  dear  ;  if  you're  like  most  people  you'll  not  remember 
it  long  enough  to  write  it  down  yourself.  He  lives  in  lodg- 
ings, and  professes  to  get  his  meals  at  a  restaurant,  but  he 
was  trying  to  convince  me  the  other  day,  that  oatmeal  con- 
tained every  thing  that  is  requisite  for  the  nourishment  of 
the  body,  and  that  people,  as  a  general  thing,  eat  a  great 
deal  too  much  meat.  I  don't  believe  he  does." 

"Why,  Aunt  Sally,  he's  the  picture  of  health  and 
strength,"  said  Marion.  "  I'm  sure  he  looks  as  if  he  had 
plenty  to  eat,  and  if  it  is  oatmeal,  his  theories  must  be 
correct." 

"  Well  my  dear,  I  didn't  say  any  thing  to  the  contrary, 
did  I  ?  I  don't  think  he'd  be  foolish  enough  to  carry  his 
self-denial  to  the  point  of  incapacitating  him  for  work. 
Come,  if  you've  all  finished,  we  may  as  well  clear  the  table. 
Somehow  whenever  we're  later  than  usual  with  tea,  some- 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  129 

body  feels  called  upon  to  come  and  spend  the  evening  with 
us.  It's  after  eight,  though,  so  perhaps  to-night  will  be  the 
exception." 

Aunt  Sally  and  Marion  retired  to  the  kitchen  with  the 
tea  things,  and  in  the  half  hour  of  their  absence  Muriel 
made  rapid  progress  in  her  acquaintance  with  Dick,  whom 
she  liked  more  and  more  as  his  frank  talk  revealed  his 
character.  He  was  not  exceptionally  bright,  intellectually, 
but  his  sturdy  honesty  and  evident  good  temper,  quite 
made  up,  in  Muriel's  estimation,  for  that.  He  told  her  a 
great  deal  about  Dovedale,  and  she  could  see  that  had  he 
consulted  only  his  own  wishes,  he  would  have  fixed  a  much 
earlier  time  for  assuming  charge  of  the  farm  than  that  for 
which  he  had  agreed  to  wait. 

She  rose  to  go  soon  after  nine  o'clock,  for  she  knew 
Margery  would  be  disturbed  by  her  unwonted  absence,  and 
when  she  mentioned  this,  Aunt  Sally  did  not  urge  her  to  stay. 
Dick  was  standing,  hat  in  hand,  waiting  for  the  good-byes 
to  be  finished,  when  Alice  returned,  escorted  by  her  brother- 
in-law,  who  had  come  up  stairs,  he  asserted,  merely  for  the 
pleasure  of  kissing  Aunt  Sally  good-night. 

"  But  Rose  said  something,  aunty  "  he  added,  "  about  a 
jar  of  pickles  you  had  for  me — I  didn't  quite  under- 
stand  " 

"  I  said  I  had  a  jar  of  pickles  for  her,  young  man,"  said 
Aunt  Sally,  briskly,  "  but  you  may  as  well  take  it,  as  long  as 
you're  here." 

"  It's  all  the  same,"  said  Mr.  Osborne,  "  and  I  hope 
Miss  Douglas  isn't  too  proud  to  walk  with  a  pickle-jar — 
you'll  let  me  take  you  home,  Miss  Douglas  ?  And  if  you 
are  too  proud,  I  will  trust  Aunt  Sally  with  it  till  to- 
morrow." 

"  I  am  not  at  all  too  proud,  thank  you,"  said  Muriel, 
laughing,  "  but  Mr.  Raymond  is  going  to  take  me  home,  so 


13°  WA  YS  AND  MEANS, 

I  will  not  trouble  you  with  the  double  charge.  I  should 
never  forgive  myself  if  you  were  to  drop  the  pickles." 

Dick  looked  very  much  pleased.  He  had  had  a  gloomy 
foreboding,  when  his  brother-in-law  appeared  upon  the 
scene,  that  his  services  would  be  dispensed  with,  for  although 
he  still  considered  himself  a  boy,  there  were  times  and 
seasons  when  he  did  not  find  it  altogether  pleasing  to  be 
treated  "  as  such,"  notwithstanding  his  declaration  to 
Marion. 

"  So  you  prefer  to  drop  me  ? "  suggested  Mr.  Osborne, 
"  but  if  you  are  sincere,  you  will  not  forbid  me  to  walk  with 
you  and  Dick  so  far  as  our  roads  are  the  same,  and  if  you 
are  not,  you  will  be  justly  punished.  Here  comes  Aunt  Sally 
with  my  jar  of  pickles — it  is  bigger  than  my  fondest  dream 
of  it,  and  walnuts,  I  do  believe." 

Dick  was  a  little  disappointed  when  he  found  they  were 
going  to  take  a  car  instead  of  walking  all  the  way,  but 
Muriel,  having  measured  the  distance  that  afternoon,  and 
found  it  rather  greater  than  she  had  thought,  was  unwilling  to 
lengthen  her  absence  needlessly,  and  she  thought,  besides, 
that  by  the  time  Dick  reached  home  he  would  have  had 
quite  enough  exercise  for  one  day.  They  parted  with  very 
friendly  feelings  toward  each  other,  and  a  renewal  of  the 
engagement  about  the  "kitchen  garden,"  and  Muriel's  face 
was  so  unwontedly  bright,  when  Margery  met  her  in  the 
hall,  that  that  worthy  woman  relented  a  little — but  only  a 
little. 

"  Well,  Miss  Muriel,"  she  said,  sternly,  "  I've  had  a  fine 
fright  about  you  this  evening,  and  the  dinner  keeping  warm 
till  after  eight  o'clock.  It  would  not  have  made  your 
pleasuring  any  the  less,  may  be,  if  you'd  told  me  you'd  be 
away  for  dinner " 

"  But  I  did  not  know  that  I  should,  Margery,  dear,"  said 
Muriel,  meekly.  "  I  went  to  see  Miss  Bowne,  and  she  kept 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  131 

me  to  tea,  and  I've  had  such  a  happy  evening  that  you 
mustn't  scold  me.  I  did  mean  to  tell  you  where  I  was  go- 
ing, for  I  thought  I  might  possibly  stay  to  tea,  but  I  forgot 
it  just  at  the  last.  Has  any  one  been  here  ? " 

"  Your  three  great-aunts,  the  Misses  Gordon,  called  very 
soon  after  you  went  out,"  replied  Margery,  and  Muriel  saw, 
or  fancied  she  saw,  a  sort  of  twinkle  in  the  old  woman's 
eyes.  "  They  seemed  much  put  about  at  not  finding  you  at 
home,  and  I  was  quite  unable  to  say  where  you  had  gone, 
which  was  a  pity,  perhaps.  But  Miss  Jessie  bade  me  tell 
you  that  she  hoped,  since  you  were  visiting,  you  would  not 
be  long  before  you  came  to  see  them." 

"  I  shall  go  very  soon,"  said  Muriel,  "  I'm  sorry  you  were 
frightened,  Margery." 

"  I'll  get  over  it,  may  be,"  answered  Margery,  with  a  per- 
ceptible softening  of  voice  and  manner.  "  Good-night,  Miss 
Muriel 


CHAPTER  VII. 

A    PEACEFUL    VICTORY. 

"  There  is  a  pleasure  that  is  born  of  pain." 

— "  Owen  Meredith." 

was  one  lesson  which  Miss  Bowne  had  learned 
1  thoroughly,  and  that  was  that  the  time  and  manner  of 
making  a  suggestion  had  much  to  do  with  it's  prosperity ; 
and  as,  the  more  she  thought  of  it,  the  more  she  leaned  to 
an  acceptance  of  Muriel's  invitation,  she  waited  patiently 
for  a  fitting  opportunity  to  lay  the  matter  before  her  chil- 
dren. She  was  greatly  tempted  to  speak  of  it  that  first 
evening  as  soon  as  Muriel  was  gone,  but  she  stoutly 
resisted  the  temptation.  Alice  was  never  a  very  sound 
sleeper,  and  her  aunt  knew  that  a  discussion,  such  as  would 
inevitably  follow  the  announcement,  would  cost  her  several 
hours  of  needed  sleep.  Besides,  Aunt  Sally  had  found  the 
wisdom  of  "  sleeping  on  "  important  questions  before  dis- 
cussing them,  and  she  decided  that,  should  she  think  it  best 
to  refuse  Muriel,  it  would  also  be'  best  to  say  nothing  to 
any  one  about  the  matter.  So  she  said  little  beside  good- 
night, after  Muriel  went,  and  Marion,  fearing  that  she  was 
tired,  did  not  try  to  make  her  talk.  They  had  all  been 
concerned  to  notice  of  late,  that  she  seemed  less  vigorous 
and  strong  than  she  had  been,  and  there  was  a  general  con- 
spiracy to  save  her  in  every  possible  way,  which  by  no 
means  escaped  her  notice,  although  she  did  not  speak  of  it, 
or  of  the  failure  of  her  strength.  The  truth  was,  that  city 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  133 

life,  and  confinement  to  the  small  quarters  which  she  and 
her  family  occupied,  was  telling  upon  her,  and  she  was 
dimly  conscious  of  this,  but  quite  unwilling  to  acknowledge 
it  even  to  herself.  But  she  caught  herself,  from  time  to 
time,  looking  forward  with  all  Dick's  eagerness  to  the  time 
when  he  should  be  permanently  established  at  Dovedale, 
and  she  could  once  more  live  the  free  and  simple  life  which 
was  most  natural  to  her.  These  two  comrades  had  many 
refreshing  talks  about  "  the  good  time  coming,"  and  their 
kitchen-garden,  and  truck-patch,  and  "  critters "  as  Joe 
invariably  called  the  live-stock,  and  Dick  had  a  profound 
respect  and  admiration  for  Aunt  Sally,  on  the  strength  of 
her  experience  as  a  farmer,  quite  apart  from  all  other  con- 
siderations. Summer  was  their  gala-time,  and  Aunt  Sally 
tided  the  restless  boy  over  many  a  discontented  hour,  by 
drawing  him  into  talks  about  the  farm.  A  doubt  on  her 
mind  about  leaving  Dick  was,  when  she  came  to  think  the 
matter  over  quietly,  the  chief  obstacle  between  herself  and 
the  acceptance  of  Muriel's  proposition.  The  more  she 
thought  of  this  latter,  the  more  the  horizon  seemed  to 
widen.  With  her  knowledge  and  experience,  added  to 
Muriel's  will  and  financial  ability,  and  young  strength  and 
health,  how  much  they  might  accomplish  !  And  she  was 
honestly  afraid  that  Muriel  would  waste  both  time  and 
money  in  many  blunders  if  she  were  left  to  herself,  or  still 
worse,  fell  into  hands  of  injudicious  advisers.  She  did  not 
feel  that  it  would  be  wrong  to  leave  Alice  and  Marion  now, 
for  although  the  latter  had  still  nearly  a  year  of  teaching 
before  her,  as  a  fixed  engagement,  in  payment  for  her 
"  finishing  "  at  Mrs.  Irving's  school,  the  one  session  a  day 
left  her  enough  time  to  enable  her  to  do  her  full  share  of 
the  housework,  which,  under  skillful  and  intelligent  manage- 
ment, had  been  reduced  to  a  minimum.  And  a  little  more 
self-denial  would  not  hurt  Alice.  She  was  struggling 


134  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

bravely  with  her  besetting  sin  of  selfishness,  and  her  family 
noticed  a  very  marked  change  for  the  better  in  her  since 
her  return  from  her  uncle's,  about  two  years  ago,  but  Aunt 
Sally  often  saw  with  pain  the  hold  old  habits  had  upon 
her  ;  how  she  humored  herself  almost  unconsciously  in 
many  small  ways,  at  the  expense  of  the  others,  and  often  let 
Marion  take  an  undue  share  of  the  errand-going,  which  was 
the  chief  part  of  the  house-work  permitted  them.  Marion's 
frank  and  generous  nature  made  her  quite  unsuspicious  of 
this,  and  was,  Aunt  Sally  sometimes  thought,  a  real  dis- 
advantage to  Alice.  Perhaps,  under  the  new  arrangement, 
a  change  for  the  better  might  take  place. 

"  And  it  wouldn't  be  like  going  off  somewhere  where  I 
couldn't  get  to  them,  nor  they  to  me,"  she  argued  with 
herself.  "  Muriel  likes  them  all  already  ;  I  can  see  that;and 
it  would  be  no  cross  to  her  to  have  them  coming  about  the 
house,  as  they  certainly  would  come,  if  she  had  me  there. 
And  a  friendship  with  a  girl  such  as  she  is,  might  do  quite 
as  much  for  Dick,  just  now,  as  my  being  with  him  could.  It 
did  me  good  to  see  them  talking  together,  just  as  if  they 
were  both  boys  or  both  girls.  The  fact  is,  Sarah  Bowne, 
you  want  to  have  a  long  finger  in  that  dear  girl's  pie,  and 
you're  trimming  off  your  arguments  to  fit  your  wishes  !  I 
must  leave  it  to  somebody  who  isn't  biased  either  way,  and 
yet  knows  all  the  circumstances.  I've  never  thought  I  was 
very  intimately  acquainted  with  Mr.  Hamilton,  but  we've 
always  been  friendly  on  fair  principles,  and  he'd  be  the 
first  of  his  kind,  if  he  wasn't  willing  to  give  advice  !  I  shall 
just  go  quietly  to  his  counting-room  to-morrow  afternoon, 
and  lay  the  whole  case  before  him  and  ask  him  what  he 
thinks  I'd  better  do,  and  if  I  see  that  he  really  gives  his  mind 
to  it,  and  don't  just  say  the  first  thing  that  comes  handiest, 
to  get  rid  of  me,  I'll  do  whichever  he  says — for  I've  no  opin- 
ion of  folks  that  ask  for  advice  they  don't  mean  to  follow  !  " 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  135 

If  Mr.  Hamilton  was  surprised,  the  following  afternoon, 
when  Miss  Bowne  appeared  at  the  door  of  his  counting- 
room,  he  kept  his  surprise  to  himself  in  an  able  manner,  and 
seated  her  in  the  most  comfortable  chair  he  possessed,  with 
an  old-fashioned  courtesy  which  highly  gratified  her.  He 
had  a  very  sincere  respect  for  the  old  lady,  and  if  they 
could  but  have  discovered  it,  much  in  common  with  her, 
which  would  have  made  a  friendship  between  them  very 
pleasant  for  both,  but  as  he  grew  year  by  year  more  and 
more  absorbed  in  business-cares  and  anxieties,  he  ceased 
even  to  keep  up  communication  with  old  friends,  and  never 
thought  of  forming  new  friendships. 

Aunt  Sally  had  a  great  contempt  for  "  fooling,"  and  she 
had  also  that  somewhat  rare  quality,  an  appreciation  of  the 
value  of  other  people's  time,  so  she  came  to  the  point  speed- 
ily with — 

"  Are  you  too  busy  Mr.  Hamilton  to  spare  me  fifteen 
minutes  ?  I'd  greatly  prefer  that  you  should  say  so  at 
once,  if  you  are  !  "• 

"  1  am  not,"  he  said,  with  a  very  pleasant  smile  ;  "  my 
business  is  over  for  to  day,  and  I  was  just  making  ready  to 
go  up  town.  I  tell  you  this  not  to  hurry  you,  but  quite  the 
reverse.  It  is  now  half-past  four  ;  we  do  not  dine  until 
seven,  and  it  takes  me  just  half  an  hour  to  make  the  jour- 
ney. In  what  way  can  I  serve  you  ?  " 

"  I  would  like  you  to  advise  me  about  something  that  I 
can't  settle  for  myself,"  replied  Aunt  Sally  ;  and  without 
further  preface  or  apology  she  stated  her  case  with  perfect 
impartiality  and  in  the  fewest  possible  words. 

Mr.  Hamilton  listened  attentively,  and  with  evident 
interest.  He  was  silent  for  some  little  time  after  she  had 
finished,  and  then  he  said,  deliberately  : 

"  I  do  not  know,  and  I  suppose  you  prefer  that  I  should 
not  know  until  I  have  given  you  my  opinion,  what  your 


136  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

own  inclination  is  in  this  matter,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  if 
you  wish  to  accept  Miss  Douglas's  offer,  you  need  have  no 
scruple  about  leaving  your  nieces  and  nephew.  I  have  ob- 
served Dick  closely  for  some  time  past,  and  I  think  he  can 
be  trusted  with  himself.  He  is  unusually  conscientious  for 
a  boy  of  his  age  and  sincerely  fond  of  his  sisters.  As  for 
the  girls,  it  will  do  Marion  no  harm,  I  think,  and  may  do 
Alice  much  good  to  have  the  added  responsibility  which 
will  come  to  them  with  your  departure.  And  I  can  see  that 
you  might  make  yourself  very  widely  useful  by  living  with 
Miss  Douglas.  Fanny  has  told  me  a  good  deal  about  her, 
and  all  she  tells  me  impresses  me  favorably  ;  but  it  is  a 
heavy  responsibility  which  has  been  suddenly  thrust  upon 
her,  and  much  depends  upon  the  beginning  she  makes. 
So,  judging,  as  I  only  can,  from  my  limited  knowledge  of 
the  circumstances,  I  should  advise  you  to  accept  Miss 
Douglas's  offer." 

"  But  don't  you  think  ?  "  inquired  Aunt  Sally,  "  that  five 
hundred  dollars  a  year  is  a  great  deal  too  much  for  her  to 
pay  me,  in  addition  to  my  board  and  lodging,  just  for  living 
with  her  ?  It  isn't  as  if  I  could  do  any  sort  of  work,  you 
see." 

"  No,  I  do  not  think  it  is,"  replied  Mr.  Hamilton,  without 
taking  any  time  for  deliberation  now.  "Your  judgment 
and  experience  will  probably  be  worth  quite  that  much  to 
her  in  various  ways,  and  you  will  find,  I  imagine,  numerous 
small  expenditures  necessary  which  are  not  necessary  now. 
I  think  you  need  have  no  hesitation  in  accepting  the  sum 
named  by  Miss  Douglas.  It  is  not  large  enough  to  place 
you  under  any  obligation,  and  yet  I  consider  that  it  is  per- 
fectly fair." 

Aunt  Sally  rose  as  he  finished  speaking,  and  held  out  her 
hand,  saying  : 

"  You've  done  me  more  of  a  favor  than  you  know,  per- 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  137 

haps,  Mr.  Hamilton,  and  I  shall  not  forget  it.  Whether  or 
not  you've  done  Miss  Douglas  one  remains  to  be  seen." 

He  shook  hands  with  her  cordially,  as  he  said  : 

"  I  am  quite  at  ease  upon  that  head.  And  you  have  done 
me  a  favor,  Miss  Bowne.  You  have  taken  for  granted 
more  than  most  people  would  believe  of  me  upon  sworn 
testimony." 

Aunt  Sally's  mind  was  the  battle-ground  of  conflicting 
feelings  as  she  marched  home.  Mr.  Hamilton's  advice  was 
so  evidently  well  considered  and  sincere  that  she  felt 
pledged  to  herself  to  be  guided  by  it ;  yet,  now  that  she 
might  consider  her  decision  made,  it  seemed  to  her  that  she 
had  been  hasty,  and  that  fresh  reasons  for  reversing  it 
sprang  up  at  every  corner  she  turned.  She  wished,  too, 
now,  that  she  had  mentioned  the  proposal  to  her  children 
that  evening  and  allowed  them  to  have  some  voice  in  her 
decision,  instead  of  waiting  to  settle  the  matter  before 
speaking  of  it  at  all. 

"I've  three-quarters  of  a  mind  just  to  end  the  whole 
business  by  telling  her  I  can't  go,  and  there's  no  more  to  be 
said,"  she  thought,  as  she  drew  nearer  home.  "  I  don't  see 
how  those  girls  will  manage,  with  their  teaching,  to  pay 
half  enough  attention  to  the  housekeeping.  They'll  spend 
twice  what  they  spend  now  and  not  have  as  much  to  show 
for  it.  And  if  the  table  is  poor,  it'll  be  Dick  who  will  suffer 
the  most,  for  he's  a  growing  boy  and  needs  good  whole- 
some food,  and  plenty  of  it.  I  wish  I  hadn't  gone  to  Mr. 
Hamilton." 

Then,  with  a  sudden  effort  of  will : 

"  Sarah  Bowne,  you're  a  weak-minded  old  goose.  Which- 
ever way  you  settled  it  you'd  be  hankering  after  the  other. 
And  I'll  not  have  you  breaking  a  promise,  if  it  is  only  to 
yourself.  You've  made  your  decision  ;  now  do  you  abide 
by  it,  and  make  the  best  of  it." 


I38  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

And  she  refused  to  discuss  the  matter  any  further  with 
herself,  resolutely  turning  her  attention  to  the  shop  win- 
dows, which  usually  kept  her  sufficiently  amused  when  she 
took  her  walks  abroad,  but  which  somehow  failed  to  interest 
her  to-day. 

We  need  not  wonder  that  we  make  such  slow  progress 
in  a  real  acquaintanceship  with  other  people  when  we  con- 
sider how  slightly  we  are  acquainted  with  our  real  selves. 
Aunt  Sally  was  perfectly  certain,  before  the  momentous 
interview  with  her  children  took  place,  that  their  distress  at 
losing  her  would  be  the  thorn  in  her  flesh  which  would  make 
her  decision,  if  not  exactly  meritorious,  entirely  free  from 
the  charge  of  self-indulgence,  and  that  it  would  at  least 
equal  her  sorrow  for  even  so  slight  and  partial  a  separation 
as  that  before  them.  But,  although,  when  she  first  men- 
tioned Muriel's  proposal,  the  demonstration  fully  equaled 
her  expectations,  she  had  not  employed  more  than  half  her 
arguments  when  she  saw  that  her  auditors  were  beginning 
to  look  upon  the  scheme,  if  not  exactly  with  favor,  at  least 
without  hostility.  What  she  did  not  see  was,  that  the  same 
idea  had  occurred  to  them  all — the  solid  advantages  for 
herself  which  would  be  gained.  As  has  been  said,  they  had 
all  observed  with  anxiety  the  recent  failure  in  her  strength, 
and  in  talking  it  over  together  had  attributed  it  to  the  right 
cause,  and  deplored  their  inability  to  do  any  thing  before 
the  close  of  the  school  year  should  leave  them  free  to 
return  to  Dovedale.  It  distressed  them  to  see  her  gal- 
lantly persevering,  in  spite  of  weariness  and  discomfort,  in 
work  which,  with  a  little  management,  they  could  have 
done  themselves,  but,  after  several  encounters,  in  which 
they  invariably  got  the  worst  of  it,  they  were  obliged  to 
give  up  their  affectionate  attempts  to  lighten  her  labors, 
for  they  saw  that  the  idea  of  being  a  useless  burden  upon 
their  hands,  or  those  of  any  one  else,  was  far  worse  for  her 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  139 

even,  than  over-fatigue.  A  carefully-worded  suggestion 
that  a  little  girl  in  the  neighborhood  should  be  permitted  to 
come  for  a  few  hours  every  morning  and  "  do  up  the  work," 
under  Aunt  Sally's  supervision,  had  been  met  with  undis- 
guised scorn  ;  and  it  was  just  because  all  their  attempts  to 
make  her  more  comfortable  had  met  with  such  utter  failure 
that,  after  the  first  shock  was  over,  they  were  ready  to  listen 
reasonably  to  what  she  had  to  say. 

"  We  stole  you  from  cousin  Marion  and  cousin  Philip, 
in  exactly  the  same  way,  dear,"  said  Marion,  when  she 
had  finished,  "  and  so,  desolate  as  we  shall  be  without  you, 
we  have  no  right  to  detain  you  by  force  !  The  mills  of  the 
gods  seem  to  have  ground  rather  rapidly  though,  in  this 
particular  case." 

"  It  would  be  almost  like  going  into  the  country,  wouldn't 
it  ?  "  said  Alice  ;  "  the  house  is  so  large,  and  has  such  nice 
grounds  about  it,  and  it  is  so  much  further  out  than  this 
house  is." 

"  It  couldn't  well  be  further  in,  ma'am,"  said  Dick,  "  but 
that's  neither  here  nor  there  ;  the  chief  shock  to  me  is  Miss 
Muriel's  perfidy.  It  seems  that,  while  we  were  on  hospi- 
table thoughts  intent,  she  was  planning  ruin  and  disaster  for 
us,  and  with  such  an  innocent  face,  too !  But,  indeed, 
Aunt  Sally,  we  should  be  selfish  wretches  if  we  were  to  lay 
a  detaining  finger  on  you,  when  you've  such  an  offer  as  that 
— a  young  woman  who  has  more  money  than  she  knows 
what  to  do  with,  actually  begging  you  to  '  boss  '  the  spend- 
ing of  it !  Virtue  is  rewarded,  once  in  awhile,  even  in  this 
wicked  world  !  " 

"  I  wish  you  wouldn't  talk  such  nonsense,  Dick  !  "  said 
Aunt  Sally,  with  an  unusual  sharpness  in  her  tones.  "  You 
know  well  enough  that  I  wouldn't  stir  a  step  from  here,  for 
her  or  any  body  else,  just  for  my  own  comfort.  But  it 
seems  like  an  opportunity  that  I've  been  sort  of  waiting  for, 


140  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

without  knowing  it,  nearly  all  my  life,  and  you  needn't 
think,  any  of  you,  that  I'm  just  going  blindfold  on  my  own 
judgment,  for  I'm  not !  I  was  so  torn  to  pieces  trying  to 
settle  it,  that  I  made  up  my  mind  I'd  better  go  to  some- 
body  who  could  see  it  from  the  outside,  and  all  round, 
and  I  did  go  yesterday  afternoon  to  your  Uncle  Hamil- 
ton. He  couldn't  have  been  kinder  about  it  if  he'd 
been  my  own  brother,  and  he  was  a  good  deal  more  sen- 
sible, I  make  no  doubt.  I  could  see  he  really  thought  the 
matter  over  before  he  spoke,  and  when  he  did  speak,  he  ad- 
vised me  by  all  means  to  go.  I  had  come  to  one  conclusion, 
and  that  was,  if  I  saw  he  cared  enough  to  consider  the  mat- 
ter at  all,  I'd  be  guided  by  what  he  said,  so  you  see  !  " 

"  Why  aunty  !  "  said  Alice,  laughing  a  little,  "  what  in  the 
world  put  it  into  your  head  to  go  to  Uncle  Hamilton  ? 
Weren't  you  afraid  ?  " 

"  No,  I  wasn't  afraid.  Why  should  I  be  ?  And  I  went 
to  him  because  I  had  reason  to  think  that  he  had  a  clear 
head,  and  never  spoke  before  he  knew  what  he  was  going  to 
say.  And  I  wasn't  disappointed  in  him.  But  as  soon  as 
he'd  given  me  his  opinion,  I  began  to  see  forty  arguments 
on  the  other  side  of  the  question  where  I'd  seen  one  before, 
and  I  almost  wished  I  hadn't  asked  him." 

"  I  am  glad  you  did,"  said  Marion.  "  We  have  all  been 
worried  about  you  lately — you  work  so  hard,  and  you're  so 
fierce  if  we  try  to  help  you,  or  keep  you  from  doing  any 
thing ;  and  at  Muriel's,  no  matter  how  much  you  occupy 
yourself  with  good  deeds,  they  will  not  use  you  up  physically 
as  general  housework  is  doing.  But  we  can't  let  you  go 
sit  in  the  lap  of  luxury  until  you've  given  us  a  few  lessons, 
and  let  us  into  your  secrets  about  bones  and  scraps,  and 
such  !  " 

"  I  declare,"  said  Aunt  Sally,  half  crying  and  more  than 
half  angry,  "  you're  all  alike  !  You  all  seem  to  think  that 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS,  14* 

I'm  leaving  you  because  I'm  overworked,  and  because  I  think 
I  can  '  better  myself,'  when  dear  knows  you  ought  to  know 
me  too  well  by  this  time  to  believe  any  thing  like  that  of 
me  !  I'll  never  be  as  happy  again  any  where,  I  don't  care 
where  it  is,  as  I've  been  with  all  of  you,  and  I  think  you 
might  have  better  sense  !  " 

There  were  tears  in  her  eyes  as  she  spoke,  and  this  was  so 
unusual,  almost  unprecedented,  that  it  made  a  sensation. 
They  all  saw,  or  fancied  they  saw,  that  she  thought  they 
were  letting  her  go  very  easily,  and  the  fresh  demonstration 
which  followed,  although  it  was  balm  to  her  wounded  spirit, 
came  very  near  upsetting  her  determination.  But  the  mat- 
ter was  settled  at  last ;  they  succeeded  in  convincing  her 
that  they  really  wished  her  to  go,  and  yet  that  they  should 
miss  her  just  as  much  as  if  they  did  not,  and  that  they  could 
manage  the  "  flat-work,"  between  them,  without  calling  in 
outside  help,  and  without  ruinous  waste  and  destruction. 
This  desirable  state  of  affairs  had  just  been  reached,  when 
the  arrival  of  Rose  and  Jack  necessitated  a  repetition  of  the 
facts  of  the  case,  and  Jack  came  near  upsetting  the  treach- 
erous calm  with  his  indignant  strictures,  three  parts  earnest 
and  one  part  fun,  upon  Aunt  Sally,  for  being  so  faithless  as 
to  desert  her  family  for  a  comparative  stranger.  Rose's 
gentle  tact  reduced  Jack  to  order  and  comforted  Aunt 
Sally,  but  Jack  broke  out,  at  short  intervals,  all  through  the 
evening,  saying  that  it  was  all  very  well  for  the  others,  with 
their  shallow  natures  and  love  of  change,  to  resign  them- 
selves so  readily  to  what  they  were  pleased  to  consider  the 
inevitable,  and  for  Aunt  Sally  to  let  a  marble  hall  and  a 
gilded  orphan  lure  her  away  from  her  own  family,  in  this 
light  and  easy  manner,  but  that  to  a  person  of  a  dark  and 
true  and  tender  nature,  such  as  his  was,  such  shocks  were 
too  great  to  be  calmly  borne. 

"  Will  she  allow  you  to  receive  visitors,  Miss  Bowne  ?  " 


142  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

he  asked,  after  an  interval  of  silence  and  gloomy  contem- 
plation, adding,  as  Aunt  Sally  looked  fiercely  at  him  : 

"I  don't  suppose  it  will  be  proper  for  us  to  call  you 
Aunt  Sally,  under  the  fresh  set  of  circumstances  which 
you  are  preparing  for  us,  and  I  must  begin  at  once  to 
practice  on  the  other  form  of  address,  or  I  shall  be  mortify- 
ing you  before  your  aristocratic  connections — if  you  are 
permitted  to  invite  your  'umble  friends  to  the  abode  of 
wealth  !  " 

"  You're  not  worth  answering  when  you  talk  such  dread- 
ful nonsense  as  that,"  said  Aunt  Sally,  severely ;  "  you  know, 
as  well  as  you  know  you're  alive,  that  I'd  never  go  any- 
where, or  do  any  thing,  that  would  cut  me  off  from  my  own 
folks,  and  it  isn't  becoming  to  insinuate,  even  in  joke,  that 
I  would.  I  did  hope,"  she  added,  turning  to  Rose,  "  that 
after  he  married  you,  and  settled  down,  he'd  come  into 
what  sense  he  was  meant  to  have,  but  I  don't  see  that  he's 
done  it  yet." 

"  Give  him  a  little  more  time,  aunty,"  said  Rose,  laughing. 
"  Just  think  how  many  years  he  ran  wild  before  I  took  him 
in  hand.  And  he  really  isn't  quite  so  bad  as  he  was.  I 
see  enough  improvement  to  encourage  me  to  keep  on." 

Jack  made  one  of  his  worst  faces,  but  no  other  reply,  and 
when  they  said  good-night,  he  took  Aunt  Sally  in  his  arms, 
and  held  her  fast,  saying  : 

"  Did  you  really  think  I  should  be  glad  to  have  you  take 
your  candlestick  out  of  this  place,  where  you've  given  me 
so  many  happy  hours,  and  where  thanks  to  your  wisdom, 
my  Rose  of  all  the  world " 

But  here,  to  the  utter  consternation  of  himself  and  all  the 
rest  of  the  family,  Aunt  Sally  dropped  her  head  on  his  shoul- 
der, and  began  to  cry.  They  all  came  about  her,  hugging, 
kissing,  calling  her  pet  names,  begging  her  pardon,  entreat- 
ing her  not  to  cry  any  more,  until  she  raised  her  head, 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  143 

smiling,  though  in  an  uncertain  fashion,  and  assured  them 
that  she  was  not  going  to  have  hysterics. 

"  The  fact  is,"  she  said,  with  a  poor  imitation  of  her  most 
business-like  manner,  "  I've  been  worrying  and  haggling 
with  myself  over  this  affair  till  I'm  all  upset,  and  now 
I'm  not  going  to  say  another  word  about  it,  to-night  or  to- 
morrow either,  and  after  that,  perhaps,  I  can  talk  of  it  with- 
out making  a  public  fool  of  myself  about  it,  as  I've  done 
to-night. 

A  chorus  of  "You  haven't!  "seemed  measurably  to  con- 
sole her,  but  she  said  good-night  almost  as  soon  as  Rose 
and  Jack  were  gone,  and  when  Alice  and  Marion,  an  hour 
afterward  went  to  the  large  room,  divided  by  a  curtain, 
which  they  shared  with  her,  the  curtain  was  drawn  and  all 
was  still. 

Marion  took  special  pains  to  secure  an  audience  with  Mrs. 
Craig  and  explain  matters  to  her,  before  she  and  Aunt 
Sally  met,  and  so  save  the  latter  all  needless  distress.  But 
Mrs.  Craig,  instead  of  "  holding  up  her  hands  in  amaze- 
ment," as  all  the  others  had  done,  at  once  accepted  the 
situation  with  the  cheerful  philosophy  which  was  one  of  her 
prominent  characteristics. 

"  I  think  it's  an  excellent  arrangement,"  she  said,  when 
Marion  had  fully  explained  it  to  her.  "  Aunt  Sally  is  working 
harder  than  a  woman  of  her  age  ought  to  work,  and  all  the 
king's  horses  and  all  the  king's  men  couldn't  stop  her  so 
long  as  she  remains  with  you.  And  just  the  change,  even  if 
it  were  not  a  change  for  the  better,  would  do  her  good.  I 
don't  see  myself  how  people  stand  it  to  stay  in  the  same  place 
and  at  the  same  things  forever,  as  so  many  of  them  do,  and 
I've  been  trying  for  a  week  to  coax  Stephen  to  go  on  a  lit- 
tle spree  with  me,  just  to  New  York  or  to  Philadelphia,  by 
one  of  those  nice  little  steamers,  or  something  like  that, 
but  he's  the  most  inexorable  man  !  He  says  if  I  want  him 


144  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

to  take  a  real  holiday  in  the  summer,  he  must  work  on 
steadily  during  the  interval,  but  that  I  can  go  by  myself,  if 
I  wish  to.  He  knows  he's  quite  safe  in  saying  that,  or  he 
wouldn't  say  it.  So  last  evening,  when  he  thought  he  was 
going  to  read  all  the  instructive  and  didactic  articles  in  the 
Nation  to  me  while  I  darned  his  socks,  I  made  him  help  me 
move  every  single  thing  in  this  parlor  into  a  different  place, 
and  this  morning,  when  I  dusted,  I  found  it  quite  refreshing. 
I'd  advise  you  to  try  it." 

"  I  thought  it  looked  as  if  there  had  been  an  earthquake 
here,"  said  Marion,  "  but  I  couldn't  tell  what  the  matter  was. 
You  don't  think  there's  any  thing  seriously  amiss  with  Aunt 
Sally,  do  you,  Fanny  ? " 

"  No  indeed  ;  I  think  the  easy  life,  comparatively  speak- 
ing, which  she  will  lead  with  Muriel,  and  the  freedom  from 
housekeeping  cares,  will  bring  her  all  right  again  in  a  very 
short  time.  But  she  isn't  so  young  as  she  was  a  few  years 
ag°»  y°u  must  remember,  and  she  tires  more  easily." 

Fanny's  husband  quite  agreed  with  her  in  her  view 
of  the  case  when  they  talked  the  matter  over,  and  their 
cordial  approval  and  encouragement  when  they  next  met 
Aunt  Sally,  had  a  most  soothing  and  reassuring  effect  upon 
her. 

Rose  must  have  talked  very  seriously  indeed  to  Jack, 
after  the  evening  upon  which  he  first  learned  Aunt  Sally's 
intention  to  leave  her  children,  for  he  disturbed  her  by  no 
more  teasing  on  the  subject.  But  he  was  genuinely  sorry 
that  she  felt  called  upon  to  make  the  change,  and  doubted 
very  much  the  wisdom  of  it  and  its  duration. 

"  You  mustn't  be  too  proud  to  come  back  to  your  deserted 
nest,  if  you  find  the  other  one  doesn't  fit,  Aunt  Sally,"  he  said 
to  her  when  they  next  talked  of  the  matter,  and  she 
assured  him  very  earnestly  that  she  would  not. 

'•But  it'll  be  my  own  fault,  I  reckon,  if  it  don't  fit,"  she 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS,  145 

added,  and  Jack  forebore  to  make  any  suggestions  or  to 
prophesy  dark  things. 

Muriel,  meanwhile,  had  waited  as  patiently  as  she  could 
for  her  answer,  sending  a  slightly  triumphant  note  to  May 
with  the  news  that  at  least  she  had  not  been  refused.  And 
May  was  quite  willing  to  admit  that  this  looked  very  much 
like  victory,  and  to  rejoice  with  Muriel  over  the  failure  of 
her  own  prophecy,  when  Aunt  Sally  made  her  decision 
known. 

"  But  I  can't  come  to  you  for  three  or  four  weeks,  my 
dear,"  the  latter  wrote  to  Muriel,  "  for  I  must  make  sure 
first  that  my  girls  here  can  manage  the  housekeeping  with- 
out me,  and  I  may  as  well  say  right  out,  that  if  I  find  they 
can't,  I  shall  feel  it  my  duty  to  stay  where  I  am.  But  I  have 
not  much  of  an  idea  that  this  will  be  necessary.  They're 
neither  of  them  foolish,  and  they'd  have  been  doing  more 
than  half  the  work  long  ago  if  I'd  have  let  them.  So  I 
think  you  may  count  upon  me.  And  one  thing  I'm  writing 
for  is  to  say,  in  thorough  earnest,  that  I  don't  want  you  to 
do  any  thing  to  the  room  you're  going  to  give  me,  nor  to 
make  a  fraction  of  a  change  in  your  way  of  living  when  I 
come.  If  you  find  a  late  dinner  suits  you  best,  I  can  make 
mine  just  as  well  when  you  have  your  lunch,  and  I  hope  we 
can  live  in  the  same  house  without  wanting  to  whittle  each 
other  into  a  new  shape  about  any  thing.  It's  the  only  way 
to  live  peaceably,  as  you'll  know  when  you're  as  old  as  I 
am,  if  you  don't  before." 

Muriel  was  a  little  vexed  by  the  injunction  about  the  room  ; 
she  had  pleased  herself  with  thinking  of  various  luxuries 
and  prettinesses  which  could  be  added  to  the  rather  stiff,  if 
entirely  comfortable,  apartment  ;  but  she  knew  that  Aunt 
Sally  would  detect  the  additions,  and  only  be  distressed  by 
them,  so  she  gave  up  her  own  wish  in  the  matter.  She  had 
decided  to  give  Aunt  Sally  one  of  the  large  square  rooms 


146  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

in  the  main  body  of  the  house,  partly  because  it  commun- 
icated with  the  one  which  she  herself  occupied  ;  not  directly, 
but  through  a  closet,  which  was  between  the  front  and  back 
rooms,  so  that  it  could  be  entirely  separated  when  they 
so  desired.  These  rooms  were  on  the  southern  side,  and 
Muriel,  when  she  was  first  left  alone,  had  chosen  the  front 
one  for  her  bedroom,  because  the  small  room  over  the  wide 
front  hall  opened  from  it  as  well  as  from  the  hall,  and  here 
Margery  had  slept.  But  when  Muriel  told  Margery  about 
Aunt  Sally's  coming,  a  look  of  relief  was  quite  visible  upon 
the  worthy  woman's  face,  and  after  all  the  arrangements  of 
which  Muriel,  in  her  restricted  condition,  could  think,  had 
been  settled  upon,  Margery  said  : 

"  I'm  thinking,  Miss  Muriel,  that  when  you  have  Miss 
Bowne  in  the  next  room  to  you,  you'll  no  longer  be  needing 
me  in  the  hall  bedroom  ?  " 

"Why,  no,  Margery,"  replied  Muriel,  "I  suppose  I  shall 
not  exactly  need  you,  though  I  have  grown  so  used  to  hav- 
ing you  there  that  I  shall  certainly  miss  you.  Did  you  wish 
to  go  back  to  your  own  room  ? " 

"  I'll  not  deny  that  I'd  like  it,  Miss  Muriel.  You  see,  my 
things  are  all  there,  and  its  as  near  fifty  as  forty  years  that 
I  have  slept  in  it  now,  and  old  people  don't  take  to  changes 
as  young  ones  do.  And  then  I  was  thinking  most  young 
ladies  have  a  dressing-room,  as  well  as  a  bed-room,  as  is  no 
more  than  proper,  and  how  would  it  be  if  we  took  the  bed- 
stead out  of  that  little  room,  and  moved  your  washstand  and 
bureau  in  there  ?  " 

"  I  think  that  would  be  very  nice,"  said  Muriel,  falling 
in  at  once  with  the  idea,  because  she  saw  that  Margery  felt 
a  little  uncomfortable  about  deserting  her,  and  this  would 
entirely  restore  her  to  peace  of  mind  ;  "  but  wouldn't  this 
room  look  a  little  bare  without  the  bureau  between  the  win- 
dows ? " 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  147 

"  I  had  an  arrangement  in  my  mind,  Miss  Muriel,  if  you 
should  like  the  plan  of  having  a  dressing-room — there's  an 
old-fashioned  dressing-table  with  a  swing-glass,  that  was 
sent  to  the  third  story  when  your  grandfather  refurnished 
these  rooms.  It's  far  handsomer  than  a  good  deal  that  the 
ladies  buy  out  of  the  second-hand  shops  now-a-days,  and 
make  such  a  time  over,  and  what  if  I  had  that  brought 
down  and  put  in  place  of  the  bureau  ? " 

"  I  should  like  that  very  much,"  said  Muriel,  cordially. 
"  I  remember  it  well,  now  that  you  speak  of  it.  I  used  to 
keep  my  dolls'  clothes  in  those  little  lower  drawers,  but  you'll 
have  to  keep  all  the  brass  handles  an  !  plates  about  it  as 
bright  as  you  keep  my  fender  and  and.rons,  Mrs.  Margery, 
or  I'll  not  have  it  at  all  !  " 

"  There's  no  fear,  Miss  Muriel.  Then  I  may  ask  Rogers 
to  attend  to  bringing  it  down  ?  There's  a  man  at  work  in 
the  garden  to-day  that  could  help  him." 

"  Yes  ;  and  Margery,  I'm  so  glad  you  spoke  of  that 
dressing-table,  for  it's  made  me  think  of  something  else. 
There's  a  very  blank  place  in  the  back  room,  between  the 
back  window  and  the  wall,  you  know,  and  I  think  I'll  have 
the  high  chest  of  drawers  brought  down  from  the  third  story 
and  put  there.  I  know  Aunt  Sally  likes  old-fashioned  things, 
and  since  she  has  tied  me  down  about  buying  any  thing  for 
the  room,  I  will  see  what  we  can  do  with  things  that  are  in 
the  house.  Can  you  think  of  any  more  pretty  old-fashioned 
things  that  are  in  the  third  story  ?  You  know  a  great  deal 
better  what  is  in  the  house  than  I  do." 

"  If  you'd  just  come  up  there,  and  in  the  garret  with  me,  my 
dear,"  said  Margery,  persuasively,  "  I  could  show  you  every, 
thing  ;  it  isn't  fitting  for  you  not  to  know  what  is  in  your 
own  house  !  You  see,  when  your  grandfather  refurnished 
the  greater  part  of  the  house,  your  grandmother  begged  him 
not  to  send  away  the  nicest  of  the  old  furniture,  and  he 


I48  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

heeded  her  ;  so  what  could  not  well  be  put  into  the  third 
story,  was  stored  away  in  the  garret,  and  there's  enough,  I 
do  believe,  with  what  could  be  thinned  out  from  the  other 
rooms,  and  not  missed,  to  furnish  six  or  seven  more  rooms, 
quite  comfortably.  Come,  Miss  Muriel,  i'ts  rainy  to-day, 
and  not  likely  any  one  will  come  in  to  disturb  you,  and  you'll 
not  be  wanting,  may  be,  to  take  the  time  after  you  have  Miss 
Bowne  here.  I'll  not  keep  you  more  than  an  hour  or  two, 
and  then  it  will  be  done  !  " 

So  Muriel  went,  willingly  enough,  laughing  at  Margery's 
persistency,  but  listening  and  looking  with  real  interest  as 
Margery  exhibited  and  described  and  suggested,  and  prais- 
ing the  entire  absence  of  dust,  which  praise  gave  nearly  as 
much  offense  as  pleasure. 

"  I  don't  know  what  you  think  I'm  here  for,  Miss  Muriel  !  " 
said  Margery,  at  last,  in  injured  tones,  "  if  I'd  let  dust 
gather  any  where  in  the  house,  when  that  overfed  housemaid 
has  not  enough  to  do  to  keep  her  out  of  mischief  !  Once  a 
week,  without  fail,  every  room  in  this  house  is  swept  and 
dusted,  used.and  unused  alike,  and  will  be,  so  long  as  I  am 
in  charge  and  have  my  faculties  !  " 

"  And  you  call  the  poor  housemaid  idle,  when  she  does  all 
that,  and  does  it  so  nicely,  too  !  Oh  Margery  !  I'm  afraid 
some  of  your  ancestors  thought  bricks  could  be  made  just 
as  well  as  not  without  straw  !  " 

One  or  two  old-fashioned  chairs  and  footstools,  and  a  re- 
markable piece  of  embroidery  representing  a  shepherd  and 
shepherdess,  who  would  have  been  obliged  to  crawl  on  their 
hands  and  knees  in  order  to  enter  their  thatched  house  in 
the  "middle  distance,"  were  selected  for  Aunt  Sally's  room  ; 
the  frame  of  the  embroidery  had  once  been  very  handsome 
according  to  old-time  ideas  of  beauty,  but  it  was  sadly  tar- 
nished now,  and  Muriel  sent  the  willing  Rogers  immedi- 
ately after  lunch  with  a  list  of  the  requisite  materials  for 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  149 

regilding  it,  and  spent  a  cheerful  afternoon  and  evening,  in 
spite  of  rain  and  solitude,  over  the  work,  her  mind  busy  all 
the  time  with  plans  and  hopes  for  the  near  future,  and 
thanksgivings  that  Aunt  Sally  had  been  so  willing  to  come 
to  her.  She  took  her  trophy  when  it  was  finished  to  dis- 
play to  Miss  Post,  who  cheerfully  praised  it,  although  Muriel 
found  that  the  picture  was  only  half  discerned  by  the  failing 
eyes.  The  doctor's  verdict  was,  as  yet,  unknown  to  Miss 
Post,  and  Muriel,  calling  herself  a  coward,  put  off  telling  it 
for  one  more  day. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

SOUNDING    THE    DEPTHS. 

"  The  earnest  hour,  if  hope  be  true, 
Must  be  solemn  or  sad ;  for  the  work  we  do 
Is  little  and  weak." 

C.  COURTHOPE  BOWEN. 

A  SINCERE  unwillingness  needlessly  to  offend  the  pre- 
judices of  her  Aunt  Matilda  deterred  Muriel  from  ask- 
ing the  Raymonds  to  take  supper  with  her  on  the  evening 
of  the  day  which  Aunt  Sally  had  elected  for  what  Jack  Os- 
borne  called  "  The  Hegira." 

She  knew  only  too  well,  that  even  so  small  an  affair  as 
this  would  be  could  not  escape  the  knowledge  of  that 
mysterious  "  little  bird,"  who,  in  these  latter  days,  seems  am" 
bilious  of  filling,  at  fasts  as  well  as  feasts,  the  place  occu- 
pied at  the  latter  by  the  classic  skeleton.  And  by  the  time 
an  account  of  the  matter  reached  Mrs  Hardcastle,  it  would 
be  "  an  evening  company,  my  dear — quite  a  gay  little  affair, 
I  can  assure  you,  although  I  am  not  positively  certain  that 
there  was  dancing  ;  and  it  actually  isn't  three  months  since 
her  poor  dear  grandfather's  death  !  " 

For  herself,  she  thought,  she  would  have  simply  disre- 
garded uncalled-for  comments,  but  she  knew  that  the  an- 
noyance which  her  aunt  would  suffer  would  be  very  real, 
and  she  did  not  feel  that  she  had  the  right  to  inflict  it 
merely  for  her  own  gratification — an  obligation  would  have 
been  quite  another  thing.  So  she  contented  herself  with 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  151 

having  supper  instead  of  dinner,  and  asking  Miss  Post 
to  join  them,  which  she  did,  with  the  pleasure  that  every 
thing  seemed  to  give  her,  and  which  often  made  Muriel  feel 
ashamed  of  her  own  comparative  thanklessness. 

If  Aunt  Sally  felt  any  remorse  when  it  came  to  the 
actual  parting  with  her  children,  she  did  not  let  any  one 
else  suffer  for  it,  and  Rogers  was  obliged  to  retire  to  the 
shelter  of  the  pantry  more  than  once  during  his  ministra- 
tion at  the  supper-table,  which,  fortunately  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  his  dignity,  was  once  more  set  in  the  rightful  dining- 
room.  For  it  had  occurred  to  Muriel  that  the  use  of  the 
library  as  a  dining-room  gave  her  old  servant  a  good  many 
unnecessary  steps  to  take,  and  that  she  was  encouraging 
herself  in  the  thing  which  she  especially  dreaded — morbid- 
ness. She  did  not  mean,  however,  to  punish,  as  well  as  cor- 
rect herself,  and  decided  to  wait  for  Aunt  Sally's  advent  to 
inaugurate  the  change,  and  also,  in  the  mean  tirre,  to  make 
the  dining-room  as  cheerful  as  it  could  be  made.  It  was  at 
least  three  times  too  large  for  the  comfort  of  a  family  of  two 
people,  so  she  searched  a  number  of  shops  until  she  found  a 
gay  Japanese  screen  of  unusual  size,  and  with  this  she  parti- 
tioned off  the  end  of  the  room  at  which  the  butler's  pantry 
lay,  surprised  herself  at  the  change  effected  by  this  bit  of 
bright  color,  for  the  division  was,  of  course,  somewhat  im- 
aginary, as  the  screen  did  not  reach  more  than  two-thirds 
of  the  way  across  the  room.  The  windows  were  hung  with 
heavy  crimson  curtains,  which  on  cloudy  days  seemed  al- 
most to  exclude  the  light ;  these  Muriel  had  removed,  and 
felt  grateful  to  a  reigning  fashion  which  afforded  her  pretty, 
semi-transparent  and  quite  translucent  draperies  in  their 
place.  Some  quaint  old  engravings,  which  had  come  to 
light  when  the  contents  of  the  garret  underwent  inspection, 
were  hung  upon  the  high,  bare  walls,  after  having  their 
tarnished  frames  regilt,  as  the  frame  of  the  piece  of  embroid- 


152  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

ery  had  been;  and  Muriel  made  a  prettily-looped  draping  of 
the  curtain-stuff  for  the  high,  cold-looking  marble  mantle- 
piece,  which  had  done  more  than  its  share  toward  the  rigid 
look  of  the  room.  The  improvement  was  so  great  that  Muriel 
almost  felt  that  the  screen  had  been  an  unjustifiable  ex- 
travagance. The  room  looked  smaller,  somehow,  and  so 
thoroughly  cheerful  and  inhabited  that  the  change  seemed 
almost  incredible. 

Aunt  Sally's  genuine  admiration  of  the  room  soon 
banished  Muriel's  last  unpleasant  feeling  about  it.  Muriel 
had  taken  her  into  most  of  the  rooms  on  a  previous 
visit,  not  at  all  as  a  matter  of  policy,  but  the  recollec- 
tion of  "  that  poor  child  all  alone  in  that  great  tomb 
of  a  house  "  had  not  been  without  its  influence  in  Aunt 
Sally's  decision,  and  she  was  quick  to  praise  every  thing 
that  had  been  done  to  banish  the  gloomy  look  which  seemed 
to  have  taken  the  place,  from  year  to  year,  of  the  dust  so 
rigorously,  excluded  by  Margery. 

"  It's  a  curious  thing  to  me,  t.ie  difference  there  is  in 
ladies,"  said  Rogers,  when  supper  was  over,  and  Margery 
was  helping  him  put  away  some  little  table-fineries  which 
they  had  produced  for  Muriel's  pleasure.  "  Now  that  old 
lady,"  he  continued,  "  I  should  judge,  from  the  little  I  have 
experienced  of  her,  is  a  very  good  choice  for  one  to  live  with 
Miss  Muriel.  I  have  an  idea  that  the  gloomy  days  here  are 
over,  at  least  for  the  present  time.  And  I  hope  I  may  get 
used  to  her  in  a  few  days,  and  not  be  made  to  laugh  quite 
so  sudden  as  she  made  me  several  times  this  evening.  But 
even  if  I  should  not,  the  pantry  is  handy  now  that  we've 
moved  back  to  the  dining-room,  for  which  I  feel  to  be 
thankful,  and  it  did  my  heart  good  to  hear  Miss  Muriel 
laugh  out  so  young  and  happy-like,  the  way  she  ought  at 
her  age.  But  they  do  say,  Miss  Margery,  I've  heard  it 
from  several  sides,  that  Miss  Muriel  intends  to  turn  this 


IV A  YS  AND  MEANS.  I$3 

house  into  a  sort  of  asylum  for  poor  ladies  ;  which  might 
not  be  so  pleasant,  even,  as  the  old  ways,  and  would  make 
the  work  very  different  from  what  it's  ever  been  yet." 

"  There's  no  compulsion  on  any  body,  that  I  know  of," 
said  Margery,  in  her  grimmest  manner,  "  to  stay  here  when 
they'd  rather  leave.  And  I  never  knew  a  time  when  serv- 
ants were  plentier — such  as  they  are." 

With  which  parting  shot  she  marched  up-stairs,  leaving 
the  luckless  Rogers  a  prey  to  wounded  feeling.  He  had 
not  the  slightest  idea  of  leaving  his  young  mistress,  even 
should  she  turn  the  house  into  an  orphan  asylum,  but  he  was 
very  curious  as  to  the  truth  of  the  rumors  which  were,  in 
fact,  beginning  to  be  circulated  about  Muriel,  and  he  had  an 
idea  that  Margery  would  be  among  the  first  to  be  able  to 
inform  him. 

It  pleased  Muriel  to  see  Miss  Post  take  up  her  knitting 
after  tea,  and  work  easily  on  at  it  as  she  talked,  scarcely 
even  glancing  at  it. 

"  How  well  you  do  that ! "  she  said,  after  watching  for 
awhile  the  rapidly-moving  fingers.  "You  never  drop  a  stitch, 
or  make  a  mistake.  I've  often  tried  to  knit  without  look- 
ing, but  I  always  get  it  into  a  hopeless  snarl  immediately." 

"  I  learned  when  I  was  a  girl,"  replied  Miss  Post,  "  one 
time  when  my  eyes  were  weak,  and  I  was  obliged  to  rest 
them.  I  knew  I  should  look  if  I  left  my  eyes  free,  so  I 
used  to  bandage  them  every  time  I  took  up  my  knitting,  and 
it  was  surprising  how  soon  I  learned  to  go  entirely  by  feel- 
ing. I  am  glad  enough  of  it  now,  for  I  really  think  my  sight 
grows  worse  every  day.  I've  been  wanting  to  ask  you,  Miss 
Muriel,  if  Dr.  Ellis  told  you  any  thing  more  than  he  told 
me — that  my  general  condition  was  very  poor,  and  needed 
a  great  deal  of  building  up,  before  he  could  do  much  to 
help  my  eyes." 

"Yes,"  said  Muriel,  bravely,  "he  did.     He  hopes  very 


154  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

much  to  be  able  to  restore  your  sight  entirely  a  few  months 
from  now,  Miss  Post,  but,  in  the  meantime,  and  before  he 
can  do  any  thing  directly  to  your  eyes,  you  will  become,  he 
says,  totally  blind." 

"  Then  it  is  cataract  ?  "  asked  Miss  Post,  quietly,  and 
with  none  of  the  agitation  which  Muriel  had  feared. 

"  Yes,"  assented  Muriel,  "  and  that  you  know,  is  very 
frequently  cured.  But  he  says  that  all  depends  upon  keep- 
ing up  your  strength  and  general  health  in  the  interval. 
So  I  am  going  to  be  a  perfect  dragon  if  you  don't  take  as 
much  beef-tea  and  milk,  and  strengthening  food  as  I  think 
you  should  ;  and  you  must  only  use  your  eyes  when  the 
light  is  very  bright,  and  even  then  not  very  long  at  a  time." 

"  I  had  guessed  sometime  ago  what  the  trouble  was," 
said  Miss  P_ost,  with  a  composure  so  evidently  genuine  that 
Muriel  was  amazed  ;  she  had  expected  a  very  painful  scene, 
when  this  disclosure  should  be  made  ;  for,  in  her  limited 
experience,  the  thing  which  went  by  the  name  of  "  resigna- 
tion to  the  Divine  will  "  was  any  thing  but  cheerful  in  its 
nature.  She  looked  at  the  calm,  sweet  face,  the  busy 
hands,  and  a  text,  which  always  recalled  to  her  a  stirring 
sermon  which  she  had  once  heard  upon  it,  flashed  into  her 
mind  : 

"  Strengthened  with  all  might,  according  to  His  glorious 
power,  unto  all  patience  and  long  suffering,  withjoyfulness." 

Yes,  this  was  the  religion  of  Christ  Jesus.  A  faith;  which 
never  wavered,  a  love  which  "  believed  all  things  "  and  a 
feeling  of  positive  envy  contracted  her  heart ;  with  this  for 
a  possession,  what,  indeed,  did  any  thing  else,  coming  or 
going,  matter  to  the  glad  possessor  ? 

"  I  think,"  resumed  Miss  Post,  as  no  one  else  seemed 
inclined  to  speak,  "  that  I  can  sew  upon  white  work  for 
several  weeks  longer,  for  at  least  half  the  day  ;  so  now,  Miss 
Muriel,  we  must  arrange  things  upon  a  new  basis.  So  long 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  155 

as  I  am  able  to  do  this,  I  will  gladly  stay  with  you,  only  my 
wages  must  not  exceed  two  dollars  a  week,  and  I  am  afraid 
I  shall  hardly  be  worth  even  that  to  you.  And  when  I 
become  wholly  unable  to  work,  I  shall  say  good-bye  to  you, 
but  only  for  a  few  months,  I  hope.  Mr.  Dwight,  my  min- 
ister, has  some  influence  at  the  City  Hospital,  and  I  think  he 
will  have  no  trouble  in  arranging  for  me  to  go  there,  even 
though  I  should  have  to  wait  some  little  time  for  the  opera- 
tion. How  wonderfully  I  have  been  cared  for  !  I  feel  so 
hopeful  about  the  result  of  the  operation  now,  but  if  I  had 
continued  to  live  as  I  was  living  when  you  offered  me  this 
lovely  home,  I  do  not  believe  I  should  have  had  much 
chance  for  the  recovery  of  my  sight.  I  feel  as  if  I  could 
never  find  the  right  words  for  all  my  gratitude." 

Muriel  laid  both  hands  over  the  flying  fingers,  and  held 
them  fast  while  she  said  : 

"  Dear  Miss  Post,  I  want  you  just  to  '  pretend,'  as  the 
children  say,  for  a  moment.  Pretend  that  you  found  your- 
self in  possession  of  a  comfortable  home,  and  a  great  deal 
more  money  than  you  needed  for  your  own  wants,  and 
that — Aunt  Sally,  we  will  say,  saving  her  presence,  came  to 
you  for  a  visit,  and  you  found  that  she  was  growing  blind, 
and  had  no  settled  home.  What  would  you  do  with  her  ? " 

"  Why,  Miss  Muriel,  what  a  question  !  I'd  keep  her,  of 
course  I  would — if  I  had  to  tie  her  to  the  bed-post." 

And  Miss  Post  laughed,  in  evident  amusement  at  the 
vision  of  the  energetic  Miss  Bowne  tied  to  a  bed-post  by 
any  one  no  more  powerful  than  herself. 

"  Then,"  continued  Muriel,  "you  wouldn't  let  her  go  to  a 
hospital, even  to  be  cured  ?  " 

"  Miss  Muriel,  you  are  just  setting  a  trap  for  me  !  I  see 
what  you  mean,  my  dear  young  lady,  and  I  bless  you  for 
meaning  it,  but  ought  I  to  take  this  help  from  you,  when 
there  are  so  many,  many  people  within  our  reach  whose 


156  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

needs  are  so  much  greater  than  mine,  and  who  can  not,  per- 
haps, find  entrance  to  hospitals  or  charitable  institutions  ?  " 

"  If  you  go  by  that,"  said  Aunt  Sally,  who  found  it  per- 
fectly impossible  to  keep  her  oar  out  any  longer,  "  nobody 
would  ever  take  anything  from  any  body  !  " 

And,  nowise  disconcerted  by  the  laughter  which  greeted 
this  apothegm,  she  continued  : 

"  You  know  what  I  mean,  both  of  you,  perfectly  well  ! 
And  no  one  person  can  help  and  comfort  every  body — at 
least,  not  directly — but  it  always  seems  to  me  that  there 
would  be  mighty  few  unhelped  and  uncomforted  people  in 
the  world,  if  each  one  of  us  '  lent  a  helping  hand  '  to  the 
people  we  could  reach.  And  if  the  Lord  has  put  it  into 
Muriel's  heart  to  reach  a  hand  to  you,  Miss  Post,  I  don't 
think  you  need  hesitate  to  take  it,  because  it  can't  be  given 
to  every  body." 

"  Perhaps  I  need  not,"  said  Miss  Post,  simply,  "  and  at 
least,  I  will  not  refuse  this  great  loving  kindness  to-night. 
We  will  see  how  long  the  time  of  entire  darkness  seems 
likely  to  be,  and  if  it  is  not  to  be  very  long,  I  shall  be  sorely 
tempted  to  take  this  good  gift.  But  there  is  one  thing,  Miss 
Muriel,  of  which,  perhaps,  you  have  not  thought.  I  shall 
need,  I  am  afraid,  a  little  help  in  various  small  ways  when 
my  sight  is  entirely  gone,  and  it  will  not  be  right  for  me  to 
call  upon  your  servants  for  this,  kind  as  they  have  shown 
themselves  to  me." 

"  That  reminds  me,"  said  Aunt  Sally,  before  Muriel  could 
speak.  "  The  little  girl  will  be  glad  and  thankful  to  come, 
Muriel,  just  for  her  '  victuals  and  clothes/  as  her  aunt 
says,  and  she  is  ready  whenever  you  are." 

"  Then  that  gives  me  the  answer  to  your  objection,  dear 
Miss  Post,"  said  Muriel,  and  she  proceeded  to  explain  who 
the  little  girl  was,  and  what  her  duties  would  be. 

"  And  I  am,  honestly,  very  glad  of  an  excuse  to  make  the 


IV A  YS  AND  MEANS.  157 

experiment  of  taking  her,"  added  Muriel,  "  I  don't  think  I 
should  have  dared  to  propose  it  to  Margery  without  an 
excuse,  for  she  has  had,  ever  since  I  can  remember  her,  a 
theory  that  the  servants  have  not  half  enough  to  do,  but 
she  saw  the  reasonableness  of  it  at  once,  when  I  told  her 
about  it,  and  I  think  she  has  private  designs  upon  the  unfor- 
tunate child  in  the  way  of  lessons  in  dusting  and  scouring  ! 
I  have  often  thought  that  if  people  would  be  willing  to  take 
very  young  girls,  mere  children,  into  their  homes  and  teach 
them  carefully,  we  might  not  hear  quite  so  much  of  the 
4  awfulness  '  of  servants." 

"  Yes,  that  was  the  way  mother  always  did  on  the  farm," 
chimed  in  Aunt  Sally  ;  "  we  were  never  without  one  or  two 
'  taken  girls,'  for  years  and  years." 

"  Will  you  be  kind  enough  to  tell  me  what  a '  taken  girl ' 
is,  ma'am  ?  "  inquired  Muriel. 

"  Sure  enough  !  "  said  Aunt  Sally,  "  I  suppose  that  might 
be  called  an  obsolete  expression.  Why,  my  dear,  in  those 
remote  days,  the  fathers  and  mothers  of  some  of  the  coun- 
try-girls, who  had  plenty  of  children,  and  not  quite  such  a 
plenty  of  money,  were  glad  enough  to  let  the  well-to-do 
farmers  take  their  girls  to  bring  up,  and  I  suppose  that's 
how  they  came  to  be  called  '  taken  girls  ' — though  they 
were  called  '  bound-girls,'  too,  for  they  were  bound  out 
nearly  always,  and  I  suppose  that's  just  as  much  Greek  to 
you  as  the  other  is  !  The  fathers  and  mothers  would  sign 
an  agreement  not  to  take  the  child  away,  or  molest  her, 
until  she  was  eighteen — that  was  the  age  they  set  usually, 
though  it  could  be  made  whatever  they  chose  to  agree 
upon,  and  the  family  who  took  her  would  promise  to  pro- 
vide her  board  and  clothing  and  to  give  her  a  comfortable 
outfit,  or  money,  or  sometimes  both,  when  she  was  free.  It 
was  a  risk,  of  course,  for  both  sides,  but  so  far  as  my  obser- 
vation went  it  worked  well  much  oftener  than  badly.  In 


I58  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

the  first  place,  it  gave  the  girl  a  settled  feeling  ;  she  knew 
she  couldn't  go  whisking  off  the  first  time  she  thought  the 
work  too  hard,  or  somebody  said  something  she  didn't  like, 
and  generally  a  nice  girl  would  soon  come  to  identify  her- 
self with  the  family,and  take  a  pride  in  her  work  ;  and  I 
know  of  two  or  three  instances  in  our  neighborhood  where 
the  girls  staid  right  on  after  they  were  free,  for  wages,  of 
course,  and  lived  as  long  as  twenty  or  thirty  years  in  the 
same  family.  But  that  didn't  happen  very  often,  I'm  free 
to  confess.  They  generally  married  soon  after  they  were 
free,  and  in  some  instances  the  people  who  had  taken  them 
were  glad  and  thankful  when  the  time  was  up  and  they 
could  get  rid  of  them." 

"  I  almost  wish  we  might  make  some  such  arrangement 
about  this  little  girl,"  said  Muriel ;  "  then  I  could  take 
some  comfort  in  teaching  her,  and  let  myself  get  fond 
of  her  ;  for,  from  what  you  have  said,  I  think  I  shall  like 
her." 

"  Yes,  I  think  you  will,  or  I  wouldn't  have  undertaken  to 
bring  her  here.  But,  my  dear,  if  you  are  only  to  have  her  a 
month,  instead  of  five  or  six  years,  that's  all  the  more  reason 
for  trying  to  teach  her  as  much  as  you  can  while  you  have 
her,  and  in  such  a  way  that  she'll  feel  thankful  all  her  life 
for  the  chance  she  had  of  being  with  you.  We  have  to  sow 
a  good  deal  of  seed  without  trying  to  find  out  who  will  do 
the  harvesting,  but  we  may  be  quite  sure  somebody  will,  if 
the  sowing's  done  right.  It's  discouraging  sometimes,  I'll 
admit,  to  see  no  result  of  our  work  and  our  prayers,  but  we 
mustn't  be  discouraged." 

"  It  will  be  pleasant  to  have  a  child  about  me  once  more," 
said  Miss  Post,  contentedly.  "  I  was  always  the  one  at  home 
to  help  mother  with  my"  younger  brothers  and  my  little  sis- 
ter, and  they  were  about  as  fond  of  me  as  they  were  of  her  ; 
how  long,  long  ago  it  seems  !  " 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  159 

"  And  where  are  they  now  ? "  asked  Muriel,  with  kindly 
interest." 

"  In  Heaven,  I  hope,"  replied  Miss  Post,  reverently. 
"  The  boys  both  died  young,  and  my  sister  when  she  was 
thirty.  She  and  I  had  never  been  separated  for  a  single 
day  before  her  death  ;  for  after  mother  died,  and  we  were 
obliged  to  give  up  the  house,  we  took  a  room  together  and 
learned  dressmaking  and  millinery  ;  she  was  the  milliner. 
We  had  money  enough  to  keep  us  while  we  learned  our 
trades,  and  a  little  left  to  put  by  in  case  of  illness,  and 
we  succeeded  very  nicely  while  she  lived,  and  even  after 
her  death  I  made  enough  to  put  by  a  little  every  year 
for  a  few  years.  But  I  missed  her  ;  she  always  had  more 
courage  than  I  have  ;  I  used  to  think  she  would  not 
be  afraid  to  undertake  any  thing,  and  she  would  keep  up 
with  the  fashion  of  the  day,  and  make  me  do  it  too  ;  I  tried 
to  go  on  as  I  knew  she  liked  me  to,  but  somehow  I  couldn't ; 
so  after  awhile  I  took  plain  sewing  whenever  I  could  get  it, 
in  preference  to  dressmaking,  and  that,  of  course,  did  not 
pay  so  well.  But  I've  nothing  to  complain  of ;  I've  always 
had  enough  to  eat  and  wear,  and  a  comfortable  bed  to 
sleep  in,  and  how  many  women  there  are  who  have  lost 
work  and  what  little  money  they  had,  and  suffered  from 
hunger  and  cold  !  I  often  wonder  at  the  way  in  which  I 
have  been  helped,  through  no  deserving  of  my  own,  and 
long  to  help  others  in  the  same  way,  but  I  don't  seem  to 
have  found  or  made  many  chances  to  do  that." 

Muriel  was  on  the  point  of  saying  some  of  the  things  which 
crowded  into  her  mind,  about  the  help  which  "  the  patience 
and  faith  of  the  saints  "  gave  unconsciously,  but  she  stopped 
herself — it  would  only  bewilder  and  distress  Miss  Post,  and 
perhaps  take  something  from  the  unconsciousness  which 
gave  such  weight  to  her  example.  But  she  did  extract  a 
promise  that  Miss  Post  would  do  nothing  about  entering  the 


l6o  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

hospital  without  first  giving  notice  of  her  intention,  and 
with  this  promise  Muriel  contented  herself  for  the  present. 

Aunt  Sally  was  so  evidently  tired  that  Muriel  was  very 
glad  when  Miss  Post  said  good-night,  a  little  before  ten,  and 
as  soon  as  she  was  out  of  hearing  Muriel  rose,  saying : 
"  Your  room  is  all  ready,  aunty,  and  now  I'm  going  up  with 
you  to  see  if  you  have  every  thing  you  want,  and  put  you  in 
a  proper  frame  of  mind  to  dream  a  nice  dream,  for  you  know 
it  will  come  true — your  first  dream  in  a  strange  :oom  I  " 

"  I'd  be  hard  set  if  I  hadn't  every  thing  I  wanted  in  that 
room,"  replied  Aunt  Sally,  taking  Muriel's  offered  arm  as 
she  spoke.  "  I  hadn't  time  before  tea  to  look  at  every  thing, 
but  it  somehow  seemed  to  me  as  if  I'd  come  back  to  a  place 
I'd  lived  in  once  before." 

"  You  don't  know  how  glad  you  make  me,  by  saying  that !  " 
cried  Muriel,  joyfully.  "  I  hoped  you  would  feel  so  ;  Mar- 
gery and  I  did  our  best  to  make  it  look  home-like,  but  I  was 
afraid  it  would  seem  stiff  and  strange  to  you  after  that  cosy 
little  flat.  All  the  rooms  nearly,  here,  are  so  much  too  large 
for  every  day  use,  and  the  furniture  is  so  massive  and  dark, 
that  it  helps  to  give  a  gloomy  look  to  the  house.  There  are 
things  stored  away  in  the  garret — the  things,  Margery  says, 
which  grandpapa  found  here  when  he  inherited  the  house — 
that  I  like  a  great  deal  better  than  the  ones  he  bought." 

"  Yes,"  said  Aunt  Sally,  "  there  was  a  time,  a  good  many 
years  before  this  craze  for  old  furniture  ca"ie  in,  and  more 
yet  before  people  talked  about  '  Art '  in  every  thing,  when 
•  they  took  it  into  their  heads,  the  ones  who  could  afford  it,  to 
banish  all  the  old  things,  and  have  every  thing  new,  and  I 
do  think,  for  awhile,  the  cabinet-makers  must  have  tried  how 
sinfully  ugly  they  could  make  things  !  Now  the  really  old 
ones,  of  the  better  kind,  were  made  of  real  wood,  of  the  kind 
they  professed  to  be,  and  had  their  carving  done  on  them, 
not  stuck  on  with  glue  afterward,  and  there  was  a  sort  of 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  l6l 

dignity  about  them,  if  there  wasn't  much  grace  !  Still,  I 
must  say,  that  unless  I  had  some  special  association  with 
the  old  ones,  I'd  rather  have  the  pretty,  graceful,  easily- 
moved  things  they're  making  now-a-days,  than  the  ponder- 
ous bedsteads  and  bureaus  that  were  made  a  hundred  years 
ago.  But  one  thing  was  worth  keeping,  and  I'm  glad  they're 
reviving  it,  and  that  was  the  '  chest  of  drawers.'  That  one  in 
the  corner  looks  like  an  old  friend.  I  have  missed  mine 
more  than  I  have  any  of  the  furniture  that  was  sold  when  I 
broke  up  at  the  farm.  They're  unhandy,  in  a  sense — you 
have  to  mount  upon  a  chair  to  reach  the  upper  drawers,  but 
somehow  I  always  felt  good  and  settled  when  I'd  put  my 
winter  things  away  in  those  upper  drawers,  for  the  summer, 
and  my  summer  things  for  the  winter.  I  expect  to  take 
clear  comfort  out  of  that  !  " 

"  Now,  Aunt  Sally,"  said  Muriel,  whose  face  had  brightened 
with  this  exordium  until  she,  at  least,  looked  far  from  sleepy. 
"  I'm  not  going  to  let  you  sit  up  any  longer,  or  I  shall  not 
believe  that  I  have  you  '  to  keep,'  as  the  children  say  ;  it's 
too  much  as  if  you  were  going  to-morrow,  and  I  were  obliged 
to  make  the  most  of  my  time  !  Kiss  me  good-night  and  go 
to  bed  ! " 

"  I  am  tired,  child,  but  I  s'pose  I'm  a  little  excited,  too. 
Old  folks  don't  take  transplanting  as  young  ones  do.  Tell 
me  what  time  you  have  breakfast,  and  then  you  may  go." 

"  At  eight  o'clock.     Shall  Margery  call  you  ?  " 

"  I  don't  think  she  need.  I  have  been  the  first  one  up  in 
the  house  for  more  years  than  you've  been  in  the  world,  and 
I  believe  I'd  wake  if  I'd  only  been  asleep  an  hour,  with  the 
first  streak  of  light,  or  the  first  noise  in  the  street." 

Perhaps  this  vain-glorious  speech  was  accountable  for  the 
fact  that  when  Muriel,  the  next  morning,  being  nearly  dressed, 
and  hearing  no  sound  from  the  next  room,  first  knocked 
softly,  and  then  opened  the  door,  she  found  Aunt  Sally 


162  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

sleeping  like  a  baby.  With  mischief  sparkling  in  her  eyes, 
she  was  about  to  close  the  door  as  quietly  as  possible,  and 
leave  the  victim  to  her  fate,  but  the  noise,  slight  as  it  had 
been,  was  sufficient  to  wake  her,  and  she  was  only  a  few  min- 
utes late  for  breakfast. 

"  I'm  so  sorry  I  opened  that  door  ! "  said  Muriel,  when 
Aunt  Sally  had  expressed  her  opinion  of  herself  for  making 
such  a  beginning,  without  considering  it  necessary  to  men- 
tion that  she  had  not  closed  her  eyes  till  three  o'clock.  "  If 
I'd  only  let  you  alone  I  do  believe  you  would  have  slept 
on  till  dinner-time,  and  you  did  look  as  if  you  were  enjoying 
it  so." 

"  I  think  you'd  better  call  me,  or  ring  a  bell,  at  seven 
o'clock  after  this,"  said  the  old  lady,  with  unwonted  meek- 
ness. "  I  suppose  it  does  people  good  to  be  taken  down 
once  in  a  while,  but  they  don't  enjoy  it  any  the  more  for 
that." 

Muriel  felt  all  day  as  if  the  air  had  become  more  bracing, 
the  sunshine  brighter.  She  found  herself  singing,  as  she 
went  about  the  house,  for  the  first  time  in  all  the  years  of 
her  life  there.  Margery's  joy  over  the  change  was  not  ex- 
pressed, but  "took  itself  out"  in  quiet  attentions  to  Aunt 
Sally. 

If  Muriel  had  expected  any  immediate  advice  or  sugges- 
tions as  to  the  vague  ideas  which  she  hoped  to  crystallize 
into  forms  of  usefulness  she  was  disappointed,  for  several 
days  passed,  and,  beyond  helping  Muriel  to  carry  out  the 
,  plans  concerning  the  little  waiting-maid,  Aunt  Sally  showed 
no  sign  of  acting  as  mentor.  She  was  not  idle,  however, 
but  was  making  notes  for  future  reference.  She  saw  that 
Muriel  was  more  inclined  to  dream  and  plan  and  speculate 
than  to  take  any  very  active  steps  toward  the  fulfillment  of 
her  dreams,  and  for  this  it  was  easy  to  account.  The  life 
of  repression  and  loneliness  that  she  had  led  for  so  many 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  163 

years  had  made  her  mistrustful  of  herself,  and  her  tendency 
was  to  reject  her  projects,  upon  considering  them,  and  try  to 
find  something  better.  Even  in  the  small  matter  of  her 
order  at  the  hothouse  she  was  already  dissatisfied,  and  was 
thinking  of  countermanding  it.  Aunt  Sally  had  very  soon 
penetrated  to  the  truth  about  the  supply  of  flowers,  which, 
coming  every  other  day,  had  at  first  seemed  to  her  frugal 
mind  an  unjustifiable  extravagance,  and  she  soon  saw,  too, 
that  but  for  Margery  they  would  not  fulfill  their  mission. 
The  latter  either  took  them  herself  to  people  of  whom  she 
knew  in  the  neighborhood,  or  made  suggestions  to  Muriel 
as  to  their  destination.  So,  too,  about  the  steps  to  be  taken 
after  the  purchase  of  the  property  concerning  which  Muriel 
had  talked  with  Mr.  Keith.  This  purchase  had  been  effected, 
and  they  were  waiting  her  orders  as  to  the  next  step.  The 
elder  Mr.  Keith,  having  concluded  the  business  which  had 
been  absorbing  his  time  when  she  last  sent  for  him,  had 
called  to  see  her  when  the  transaction  was  completed,  to 
express  his  satisfaction  in  it,  and  his  confidence  that  it 
would  prove  a  good  investment,  as  well  as  his  pleasure  at 
the  confidence  in  himself  which  she  had  shown,  and  which, 
he  assured  her,  he  should  always  do  his  best  to  justify. 
She  asked  for  a  little  time  in  which  to  decide  upon  her 
wishes,  and  he  courteously  assured  her  that  there  was  no 
hurry.  The  taxes  on  the  property  were  comparatively 
light,  and  something  might  occur  which  would  serve  as  a 
suggestion  as  to  the  best  employment  of  her  purchase.  It 
had  crossed  his  mind,  he  said,  that  perhaps  a  block  of  small, 
neat  houses,  built  at  a  cost  which  would,  for  the  present  at 
least,  permit  low  rents,  would  bring  a  quicker  and  surer 
return  than  any  thing  else,  as  they  would  rent  very  readily 
to  people  employed  in  the  neighborhood.  This  idea  pleased 
Muriel,  but  she  was  not  quite  ready  to  give  a  positive  order 
that  it  should  be  carried  out,  and  Mr.  Keith  himself  evi- 


1 64  IV A  YS  AND  MEANS. 

dently  thought  it  best  to  do  nothing  hastily.  After  he  went 
away  Muriel  was  seized  with  a  desire  to  see  her  new  acqui- 
sition, and  asked  Aunt  Sally  to  go  with  her  the  next  morn- 
ing, briefly  explaining  the  facts  of  the  case  and  her  own 
state  of  indecision. 

Aunt  Sally  scented  the  battle  afar  off,  and  responded  to 
the  invitation  with  great  alacrity.  So  they  set  forth  soon 
after  breakfast  the  next  morning,  taking  a  car  almost  imme- 
diately, as  the  distance  was  quite  too  great  for  the  "  senior 
partner's  "  walking  powers,  and  Muriel  declared  that  it 
would  be  a  waste  of  time,  when  people  were  going  on  busi- 
ness, to  walk  when  riding  was  possible. 

They  found  the  place  without  any  difficulty,  from  Mr. 
Keith's  directions,  and  Muriel  knocked  bravely  at  the  first 
door  of  the  forlorn-looking  row  of  houses,  determined  to 
see  for  herself  what  manner  of  people  lived  in  them,  and 
what  the  result  would  be  should  she  decide  on  a  general 
"  eviction  " — which  must,  of  course,  be  the  first  step  should 
any  change  be  made.  A  tired-looking  woman  opened  the 
door,  and  stood  looking  at  them  with  evident  astonishment, 
and  no  favor.  She  did  not  ask  them  to  come  in.  They  saw 
that  she  had  just  risen  from  a  sewing-machine,  beside  which 
was  piled  a  quantity  of  course  sewing. 

"  Will  you  please  let  us  come  in  for  a  few  minutes  ? "  said 
Muriel,  gently  ;  "  I  would  like  to  have  a  little  talk  with  you. 
I  will  not  detain  you  long." 

"  If  you  want  to  leave  tracts,  or  talk  religion,  I've  no 
time  for  either,"  she  replied,  in  a  voice  still  more  sullen 
than  her  face,  but  she  moved  aside  as  she  spoke,  opening 
the  door  wider  to  let  them  in,  and  even  setting  chairs  for 
them.  There  was  no  fire  in  the  room,  and  it  was  chill  and 
dark  by  contrast  with  the  warm  April  sunshine  from  which 
they  had  just  come.  Muriel  saw  that  the  house  was  only 
one  room  deep,  and  that  the  yard  was  so  small  that  the 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  165 

great  warehouse  immediately  behind  the  row  cut  off  both 
light  and  air.  A  very  small  stove,  a  table,  and  three  or  four 
wooden  chairs  comprised  the  furniture  ;  there  were  no  cur- 
tains or  blinds  of  any  sort  at  the  two  windows,  which  were 
opposite,  back  and  front.  Rag-carpet  covered  part  of  the 
floor.  The  walls  had  evidently  been  whitewashed  not  very 
long  ago,  but  only  with  one  coat,  and  the  various  discolora- 
tions  of  the  plaster  showed  through  the  very  superficial 
whiteness.  Altogether,  the  place  looked  utterly,  hopelessly 
comfortless,  and  Muriel  could  not  help  contrasting  its  appear- 
ance with  the  happy-go-lucky  expression  of  a  negro-cabin 
on  the  extreme  outskirts  of  the  city,  into  which  she  had 
once  happened  to  look  in  passing — rags  and  dirt  were  mani- 
fest there,  but  somehow  they  failed  to  effect  the  look  of 
squalor  and  privation  which  this  clean  and  decent  room 
wore. 

Muriel  felt  her  courage  ebbing,  and  began  the  attack  at 
once.  She  frankly  stated  the  reasons  for  her  intrusion, 
and  asked  the  woman  to  tell  her  whether  the  inhabitants  of 
the  row  would  be  put  to  any  thing  more  than  temporary  in- 
convenience by  a  notice  to  quit. 

"  I  don't  undertake  to  answer  for  any  body  else,"  the 
woman  replied,  "but  if  you  really  want  to  know  my  views 
about  the  matter,  you're  welcome  to  them  !  These  houses 
are  old  and  shabby,  and  inconvenient  ;  they're  hot  in  sum- 
mer and  cold  in  winter,  but  I  took  this  one,  after  a  long 
hunt,  because  it  was  the  only  one,  with  a  rent  that  I  could 
pay,  that  was  in  a  decent  neighborhood.  I  suppose  it 
doesn't  seem  decent  to  you — "  and  she  looked  Muriel  over 
critically,  in  a  way  which  made  her  wince,  "  but  if  you  could 
see  the  streets  where  most  of  the  cheap  houses  are,  you'd 
understand,  may  be,  what  I  mean.  Groggeries,  and  worse, 
about  every  other  house.  Noises  at  night  that  won't  let  you 
sleep.  Air  that  it's  poison  to  breathe.  I  saw  you  look  at 


166  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

that  dead  wall  that's  almost  against  the  window,  but  a  dead 
wall's  better  than  a  whiskey-mill,  if  you're  trying  to  keep 
two  boys  from  following  their  father  to  ruin,  and  ware- 
houses are  better  than  some  other  kinds  of  houses,  if  you've 
a  daughter  who's  too  good-looking  for  her  safety.  She  can 
come  home  here  when  her  day's  work's  done,  without  being 
insulted  or  tempted  on  her  very  doorstep.  If  I'm  driven 
from  here,  I've  no  time  for  the  hunt  I'd  have  to  make 
for  another  home  as  decent.  I'll  have  to  take  what  I  can 
get  soonest  and  cheapest,  and  let  the  worst  come  if  its 
coming.  That's  all  I  have  to  say." 

"  But  you  shall  not,  you  shall  not !"  cried  Muriel,  springing 
to  her  feet,  and  taking  the  woman's  rough  hands  in  both 
her  own,  "  I  promise  you,  solemnly,  and  with  this  lady  for 
my  witness,  that  if  I  ask  you  to  leave  this  house,  I  will 
first  find  one  for  you  as  cheap,  as  safe,  and  far  more  com- 
fortable.  You  believe,  you  trust  me.  do  you  not  ?" 

The  woman  looked  fixedly  in  the  glowing,  quivering  face 
before  her  for  a  moment;  she  made  no  attempt  to  draw 
her  hands  away. 

"  Yes,"  she  said  at  last,  "  I  believe  you  ;  I'll  trust  you, 
and  I'd  say  God  bless  you  if  I  believed  there  was  any  God. 
Now  you'd  better  go  ;  I  can't  quit  my  work  any  longer,  and 
the  old  lady's  shivering — she's  not  used  to  being  chilled  to 
the  bone." 

She  adjusted  her  work  upon  the  rickety  machine,  and 
Muriel  and  Aunt  Sally  went.  They  had  not  learned  to 
regard  the  very  poor  as  a  "  class,"  with  no  social  rights  which 
the  very  rich  and  very  benevolent  are  bound  to  respect. 

"  Oh,"  said  Muriel,  almost  with  a  groan, as  she  closed  the 
door,  "  I  thought  I  knew  about  poor  people — Margery  has 
taken  me  to  places — but  I  never  saw  any  thing  like  that  ! 
And  there  must  be  hundreds  of  just  such  cases — oh,  what 
shall  I  do,  what  shall  I  do  ?  " 


WA  YS  A  ND  ME  A  NS,  1 6  7 

"  The  best  thing  that  lies  nearest  to  your  hand,  my 
dear,"  said  Aunt  Sally,  "  and  be  thankful  you've  the  means 
and  strength  and  time  to  help,  instead  of  having  your  hands 
tied  by  sickness  or  poverty.  Not  that  I  think  any  body's 
hands  are  ever  wholly  tied  ;  I  shall  never  believe  that,  I 
hope,  but  some  people  do  seem  to  have  more  chances  given 
to  them  than  others  have,  and  you're  one  of  the  favored." 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Muriel,  "  I  think  sometimes,  often, 
that  I'd  much  rather  be  poor.  I'm  so  afraid  of  doing  more 
harm  than  good,  of  making  mistakes,  that  I  feel  as  if  my 
hands  were  tied.  Now,  I  don't  believe  that  poor,  fierce 
woman,  for  instance,  would  take  money,  if  I  were  to  try  to 
give  it  to  her." 

"  Perhaps  she  wouldn't,  just  yet,"  replied  Aunt  Sally, 
"and  it  doesn't  seem  to  me  that  is  the  sort  of  help  she 
needs,  either.  That's  the  mistake  so  many  good  people 
make  ;  they're  ready  enough  to  give  money,  but  not  love, or 
time, or  thought.  And  yet,  if  they  read  their  Bibles  I  don't 
see  how  they  can  help  noticing  that  in  all  the  years  of  our 
Saviour's  ministry  on  earth  there  is  but  one  instance 
recorded  in  which  He  gave  money,  and  that  was  not  to  a 
poor  person,  but  to  keep  Himself  from  being  the  cause  of 
a  quarrel  about  tribute-money.  But  we  are  told  that  He 
came  '  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost,"  '  not  to  be 
ministered  unto,  but  to  minister.'  And  it  seems  to  me  that 
there's  an  inner  meaning  in  that  incident  of  the  tribute- 
money  which  mostly  escapes  notice — it  proves  that  if  He 
had  thought  it  wise  to  give  money,  He  had  only  to  will, 
and  He  could  have  done  it.  Money's  worth  He  gave  over 
and  over,  food  to  hungry  people,  health  to  the  sick  ;  and 
though  we're  only  told  in  one  case  that  the  sick  person  had 
'  suffered  many  things  of  many  physicians,  and  had  spent 
all  that  she  had,  and  was  nothing  bettered,  but  rather  grew 
worse,'  I've  no  doubt  there  were  plenty  of  just  such  des- 


1 68  IV A  YS  AND  MEANS. 

perate  cases,  for  they'd  be  the  very  ones  who  would  be 
eager  to  come  to  Him.  And  the  wine  at  the  marriage  feast 
was  money's  worth,  too.  And  the  great  catch  of  fishes, 
when  they'd  toiled  all  night  and  taken  nothing.  So  I  don't 
mean,  far  from  it  !  that  He  set  people  an  example  of  not 
giving,  but  that  He  showed  them  the  way  to  give.  And 
another  thing  that  I  saw  in  a  book  I  once  read — a  story  ;  He 
nearly  always  touched  the  poor  things  with  His  own  hands; 
when,  if  He  had  willed  it  so,  He  could  just  as  well  have 
said,  always,  as  He  did  once,  as  if  to  show  that  it  was  pos- 
sible, '  I  will ;  be  thou  clean  !  ' ' 

Aunt  Sally  stopped,  for  slowly  as  they  had  walked  they 
had  come  to  the  end  of  the  row. 

"  Shall  you  try  another  house,  my  dear  ? "  she  asked. 

"  Yes,"  said  Muriel,  "  I  meant  to  try  at  least  two." 

And  she  knocked  at  the  door  of  the  last  house,  without 
noticing  that  the  window  had  a  little  shelf  across  it,  on 
which  a  few  jars  of  candy  were  displayed. 

"  Come  in  !  "  called  a  brisk  voice,  and  Muriel  opened  the 
door,  thereby  rousing  to  action  a  sharp  little  bell  which 
struck  two  fierce  notes,  and  then  stopped  with  equal  sud- 
denness. 

A  narrow  counter  shut  off  about  a  third  of  the  room,  and 
behind  this  counter  sat  a  small,  brisk-looking  woman  with 
sharp  black  eyes,  an  obvious  *'  front "  where  her  own  hair 
had  presumably  once  been,  and  a  good-humored  mouth, 
which,  as  Aunt  Sally  afterward  remarked,  "  took  the  edge 
off  her  eyes."  She  was  sewing,  but  rose  as  they  entered, 
saying  with  evident  amusement  : 

"  Well,  you're  the  first  people  I've  ever  met  who  were  so 
extra  polite  as  to  knock  at  a  shop  door  !  " 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,"  said  Muriel,  confusedly,  "  but  I 
didn't  see  the  window  until  after  I'd  knocked.  Will  you 
give  me  a  pound  of  the  different  sorts  of  candy,  please  ? " 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  169 

"  I  don't  know  as  there's  a  pound  in  the  whole  collec- 
tion !  "  said  the  woman,  with  a  good-natured  laugh,  adding, 
as  she  proceeded  to  empty  her  jars  into  the  small  scales  on 
the  counter  : 

"  You  see  there's  not  a  great  deal  of  call  for  candy  in 
this  neighborhood,  but  sometimes  a  child  happens  on  a 
penny,  and  brings  it  here  to  spend  and  that  gives  me  a 
chance,  but  I  never  keep  much  on  hand,  for  I  don't  want  to 
give  the  poor  little  souls  stale  trash,  and  I  always  buy  of  a 
good  maker  who  won't  poison  them.  There  is  a  pound 
after  all,  and  two  sticks  to  put  back  in  the  window  !  I 
didn't  think  I'd  so  much  left  !  " 

She  wrapped  it  up  deftly,  and  Muriel  paid  for  it,  and 
then,  after  a  moment's  hesitation,  said  : 

"  I  hope  you  will  not  think  me 'impertinent  if  I  ask  you 
one  or  two  questions.  Would  it  put  you  to  any  great 
trouble  or  cause  you  any  loss,  to  be  obliged  to  move  from 
this  house  ?" 

A  look  almost  of  dismay  came  over  the  woman's  face  as 
she  answered  : 

"  Wny  yes,  I  should  think  it  would  !  The  houses  are  so 
poor  and  out  of  repair  that  the  rents  are  low  for  the  size  of 
them,  and  the  neighborhood's  so  decent,  compared  with 
others,  where  rents  are  no  higher,  that  I  was  thankful  to 
come  here  from  where  I  was,  and  so  far  as  I  know,  pretty 
much  every  body  in  the  row  feels  the  same  way.  I  s'pose 
if  I  went  to  the  country,  or  even  very  far  out  on  the  edge 
of  the  city  that  I  could  get  a  better  house  for  less  than  I 
pay  here,  but  I  shouldn't  have  the  same  opportunities,  you 
see,"  and  she  glanced  round  at  the  three  shelves  behind  the 
little  counter.  "  I  keep  a  sort  of  variety  store — trimmings 
and  buttons  and  needles  and  cotton,  and  even  a  few  dry 
goods  and  groceries,  besides  that  pound  of  candy,  and  a 
batch  or  two  of  ginger-bread  and  cookies  twice  a  week. 


1 70  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

I'm  beginning  to  have  quite  a  good  trade,  and  the  women 
in  the  alleys  and  courts  a  few  blocks  off — poor  souls — have 
begun  to  come  here  for  what  little  tea  and  coffee  and  spices 
and  sugar  they  use.  And  that  gives  me  chances  to  talk  to 
them,  and  give  them  notions  about  their  cooking  and  other 
work,  and  I  don't  know  when  I've  been  so  pleased  as  I  was 
yesterday,  when  one  of  'em  came  of  her  own  accord  to  ask 
me  how  I  made  the  ginger-bread  and  if  I  thought  she  could 
learn  to  make  them  and  bread.  So  you  see,  I'd  be  sorry 
enough  to  go,  and  there's  a  sort  of  report  flying  about  that 
the  row  has  changed  hands  lately,  and  that  we're  all  to  be 
turned  out  neck  and  crop.  Do  you  know  any  thing  about 
it  ?  Is  that  what  you've  come  about  ?  " 

Aunt  Sally's  eyes  had  fairly  danced  as  the  woman  told 
her  story  ;  here  was  a  beginning,  a  good  beginning,  toward 
a  project  which  had  occupied  her  thoughts  for  years.  But 
she  said  nothing.  She  meant  to  wait  and  see  what  Muriel 
would  do.  Muriel's  mind  worked  fast  in  the  minute's 
pause  which  she  made  before  answering,  and  her  conclusion 
was  that  for  the  present,  and  in  this  particular  case  she  had 
better  not  avow  herself  the  owner  of  the  property.  She  had 
an  idea  that  it  would  at  once  throw  a  restraint  over  this 
frankly-speaking  tenant  of  hers,  and  the  chance  seemed  to 
her  too  good  to  be  risked.  So  she  merely  said  : 

"  Yes,  it  is  true  that  some  one  has  bought  the  row,  and 
has  been  advised  to  pull  it  down,  and  build  either  a  block 
of  shops,  or  of  houses  which  would  command  a  much 
higher  rent  than  these  do,  and  I  was  desirous  of  ascertain- 
ing something  about  the  tenants,  and  whether  any  real  dis- 
tress would  be  caused  by  giving  them  notice  to  leave." 

"  Then  you  must  have  some  influence  with  the  buyer," 
said  the  woman,  shrewdly.  "  Perhaps  you're  his  wife  ? " 

"  I  am  not  any  body's  wife,"  replied  Muriel,  smiling  and 
coloring  a  little  ;  "  but  you  are  right  in  thinking  that  I  have 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  171 

influence  with  the  purchaser,  and  I  am  very  anxious  to  use 
it  for  the  best." 

"  Well,"  said  the  woman,  thoughtfully,  "I  suppose  every 
body  has  a  right  to  do  what  he  will  with  his  own,  and 
there's  no  doubt  that  whoever  has  bought  this  block  could 
make  it  yield  three  or  four  times,  perhaps  a  dozen  times,  as 
much  income  as  it's  yielding  now  ;  but  then,  as  it  strikes  me, 
whoever  has  bought  it  must  be  rich,  and  perhaps  if  he 
knew  the  mischief  he'd  do  by  turning  adrift  the  dozen  or  so 
of  families  that  live  in  these  houses,  he'd  think  twice  about 
it.  Money's  a  good  deal,  but  it  isn't  every  thing,  by  a  long 
shot." 

"  I  have  not  time  to  stop  any  longer  now,"  said  Muriel, 
without  replying  to  these  remarks,  "  but  I  am  very  much  in- 
terested in  what  you  have  told  me  about  your  customers, 
and  if  you  will  let  me,  I  would  like  to  come  again  in  a  few 
days  and  have  another  talk  with  you,  and  I  think  my  aunt 
would  like  to  come,  too,  and  if  you  would  not  mind,  I  am 
sure  she  could  tell  you  of  a  few  more  things  which  would 
be  nice  to  make  and  sell  to  those  poor  women  in  the  courts 
and  alleys." 

"You'll  be  welcome,  both  of  you,  whenever  you  chose  to 
come,"  was  the  ready  reply,  accompanied  by  a  very  pleas- 
ant smile,  "  but  I  can't  promise  to  undertake  more  than  I'm 
doing  now  in  the  way  of  cooking,  for  what  with  that  and 
other  things  I  have  to  attend  to  my  hands  are  pretty  full. 
Still,  it  wont  hurt  to  talk  it  over.  And  if  you  have  the 
chance,  as  I  gather  from  what  you  say,  that  you  have,  I 
hope  you'll  say  a  good  word  for  the  tenants  of  this  row.  I 
don't  know  them  all  very  well,  but  this  much  I  can  say, 
they're  all  decent-behaved  people,  who  are  earning  their 
own  living,  and  troubling  nobody." 

They  left  the  shop,  exchanging  very  friendly  good-byes 
with  the  proprietor,  and  Aunt  Sally  said  :  "Muriel  !  if  we 


I?2  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

don't  take  hold  and  pull  when  the  end  of  such  a  rope  as 
that  is  put  into  our  hands,  we  don't  deserve  ever  to  have 
another  chance  as  long  as  we  live." 

"  That's  just  what  I  was  thinking  myself,  aunty,  and  I 
thought  another  thing.  The  whole  firm  of  Keith  and  Sons 
and  the  other  firm  of  Hardcastle  and  Co.,  may  unite  to  sup- 
press me,  but  that  block  will  not  be  turned  into  shops — nor 
yet  into  houses  with  higher  rents  than  those  paid  for  the 
ones  which  now  occupy  it." 

There  was  a  ring  of  resolution  in  Muriel's  voice  which 
did  Aunt  Sally's  heart  good.  Her  real  nature,  so  long  con- 
trolled, suppressed,  and  nearly  dwarfed  by  outward  circum- 
stances, was  beginning  to  assert  itself,  and  it  seemed  as  if, 
in  time,  the  tendency  to  doubt  and  vacillation  might  fall  off, 
as  the  husk  parts  from  the  ripened  grain. 

"  God  bless  you  for  those  words,  my  dear,"  said  Aunt 
Sally,  fervently  ;  "  no  doubt  you'll  have  plenty  of  annoyance 
about  the  matter,  but  there  can't  be  any  real  trouble,  for  the 
power  is  in  your  own  hands,  thanks  to  your  grandfather's 
confidence  in  you.  And  it  must  be  a  comfort  to  you  to 
know,  since  he  put  the  power  in  your  hands,  that  he 
would  be  pleased  to  have  you  make  such  uses  as  this  of  it. 
But  I  don't  think  we'd  better  make  any  more  visits  to-day. 
You  look  a  good  deal  paler  than  you  did  when  we  started 
out.  And  we  know  pretty  much  the  whole  story  now  ;  it 
seems  to  me  we  couldn't  have  lit  on  a  better  woman  than 
that  last  one,  for  finding  out  ail  we  wanted  to  know.  But  I 
I  wish  I'd  thought  to  ask  her  name.  It  never  once  oc- 
curred to  me.  What's  that  on  your  candy-bag  ? " 

Muriel  turned  it  around  and  found  printed  upon  it, 
"  Prudence  Harley,"  with  the  street  and  number  of  the 
shop. 

"  Now  that  is  right  bright  of  her,"  said  Aunt  Sally,  ad- 
miringly, "  it  advertises  her  every  time  she  sells  any  thing. 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  1 73 

What  are  you  going  to  do  with  your  pound  of  candy  ?  not 
eat  it,  I  hope  ?  " 

"  No,"  and  Muriel  laughed  a  little  ;  "  I'm  afraid  that  ac- 
cording to  May  Douglas's  doctrine,  I  should  '  drop  into 
poetry,'  of  the  extremely  sentimental  sort,  if  I  were  to  eat  a 
whole  pound  of  stick  candy,  even  of  such  superior  quality 
as  this  is  warranted  to  be — and  doubtless  is.  I  only  bought 
it,  in  the  first  place,  to  give  myself  time  to  collect  my 
thoughts,  and  then  it  occurred  to  me  that  it  might  do  to 
use  as  Mr. — Duncan,  was  it  ? — uses  his  bunches  of  wild 
flowers." 

A  group  of  little  ragmuffins,  playing  happily  by  and  in  the 
gutter,  caught  her  eye  as  she  spoke,  and  she  walked  boldly 
up  to  them,  untying  the  bag  as  she  went.  They  did  not  flee 
at  her  approach,  as  she  had  half  feared  they  would  ;  on  the 
contrary,  they  turned  as  if  by  concerted  action,  and  concen- 
trated a  six-fold  stare  upon  her,  while  one  very  small  boy, 
whose  trowsers  appeared  to  be  in  the  act  of  swallowing  him 
whole,  made  an  indescribable  grimace,  and  a  gesture  of  mock 
admiration,  at  the  same  time  ejaculating  : 

"  Oh,  my  eye  !  " 

"  No,  it's  your  mouth,"  said  Muriel,  holding  out  a  stick  of 
candy.  "  There's  one  for  each  of  you,"  she  added,  and  six 
small  black  hands,  which  showed  faint  traces  of  having  once 
been  white,  were  thrust  eagerly  toward  her. 

"  Now  she'll  give  us  a  track,"  said  the  spokesman  of  the 
group,  "  and  ask  us  where  we  live,  and  try  to  hook  us  into 
her  Sunday-school  class." 

He  spoke  with  such  entire  freedom  from  embarrassment, 
and  his  dirty  little  face  had  such  a  knowing  twist  as  he 
announced  his  expectation,  that  Muriel  laughed  outright. 
Then  she  said  : 

"  You  never  were  more  mistaken  in  your  life,  young  man. 
I  haven't  any  Sunday-school  class,  nor  any  '  tracks,'  but  I 


174  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

have  some  more  candy,  and  I  shall  have  an  errand  near 
here  day  after  to-morrow  morning,  so  if  you  will  all  be  here 
at  noon,  as  I  go  home,  \t\\.\i  perfectly  clean  hands  and  faces, 
I  shall  have  a  stick  of  candy  and  a  cake  for  each  of  you." 

"  Honor  bright,  and  no  fooling  ?  "  questioned  the  speaker, 
severely. 

"  Honor  bright,  and  no  fooling ! "  repeated  Muriel, 
affirmatively,  "  and  you  may  bring  six  of  your  brothers  and 
sisters,  or  friends  if  you  like,  but  remember,  every  body's 
hands  and  face  must  be  perfectly  clean,  or  I  shall  not  give 
the  cake  and  candy  at  all." 

"  You  don't  mean  to  say,"  he  indignantly  demanded,  "  that 
if  one  of  us  hasn't  cleaned  hisself  right,  you  wont  give  noth- 
ing to  all  the  rest  ?  Do  you  call  that  fair  ? " 

"  No,"  replied  Muriel,  "  and  that  was  not  what  I  meant — 
don't  be  stupid.  All  the  clean  ones  will  get  it,  and  none  of 
the  dirty  ones.  Now,  do  you  understand  ? " 

"  You'  11  have  to  'scuse  him,  lady ;  he  cracked  his  poor 
head  on  the  ice  last  winter,  and  his  mother  ain't  never  had 
time  to  fill  the  crack  up,"  remarked  one  of  the  larger  boys, 
holding  his  candy  in  the  corner  of  his  mouth,  as  if  it  were  a 
cigar,  while  he  spoke.  There  was  a  peal  of  derisive  laugh- 
ter, mingled  with  hooting,  from  the  rest  of  the  group  ;  the 
insulted  youth  caught  his  insulter's  apology  for  a  cap  and 
hurled  it  into  a  conveniently-situated  mud-puddle,  and 
Muriel  thought  it  wise  to  beat  a  hasty  retreat.  Aunt  Sally 
was  laughing  quietly,  and  did  not  seem  at  all  annoyed  by 
the  delay. 

"  They're  sharp,  those  poor  little  wretches,"  she  said,  as 
Muriel  joined  her.  "  What  are  you  going  to  do  with  'em, 
my  dear,  if  they  succeed  in  'cleaning  themselves?'  " 

"  I  don't  know,  aunty,"  replied  Muriel,  with  a  perplexed 
face  ;  "  I  almost  wish  already  I  hadn't  spoken  to  them." 

"  That's  a  cowardly  wish,"   said  Aunt   Sally,   severely, 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  175 

"  and  I  wouldn't  let  it  turn  into  'quite.'  We'll  think  a  little 
between  this  and  Thursday,  and  see  what  we  can  make  out 
for  the  next  best  thing.  It's  always  a  good  beginning, 
whatever  may  come  next,  for  people  to  '  clean  themselves.' 
And  I'm  curious  to  see  how  many  of  'em  will  think  it  worth 
their  while  to  do  it." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

ENLISTING. 

"  If  I  ask  Him  to  receive  me, 

Will  He  say  me  nay  ? 
Not  though  earth  and  not  though  heaven 
Pass  away." 

MURIEL  had  a  great  desire  that  her  interview  concern- 
ing the  purchase  of  real  estate  might  be  with  the 
elder  Mr.  Keith,  but  she  hesitated  about  writing  him  a  note 
to  this  effect,  fearing  that  it  would  seem  discourteous,  for 
his  son  was  certainly  sufficiently  conversant  with  her  affairs 
to  transact  any  business  for  her,  and  she  did  not  wish  to 
appear  to  distrust  his  ability.  She  laid  her  difficulty  before 
Aunt  Sally,  who,  after  a  frequent  practice  of  hers,  answered 
one  question  by  asking  another. 

"  Why  don't  you  go  down  to  the  office  this  morning,"  she 
said,  "  and  then,  when  the  old  gentleman  comes  forward,  as 
he  will,  to  speak  to  you  and  tell  you  how  glad  he  is  to  see 
you,  you  can  just  keep  him  till  you've  said  your  say  and 
heard  as  much  as  you  want  to  of  his." 

"But  I'm  so  afraid  of  interrupting  and  inconveniencing 
him  if  I  do  that,"  objected  Muriel. 

"  It  won't  take  him  half  as  long  to  have  a  little  talk  with 
you,"  said  Aunt  Sally,  stoutly,  "  as  it  would  to  read  a  note 
from  you  and  answer  it,  and  then,  after  all,  you'd  have  to 
see  him,  I  suppose,  before  you  settled  any  thing  positively 
and  formally.  Come  !  I'd  go  and  have  done  with  it,  if  I 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  177 

were  you  ;  you'll  only  feel  unsettled  and  uncomfortable  till 
you  do." 

"  Aunt  Sally,  you  make  me  think  of  Margery  when  she  used 
to  take  me  to  the  dentist.  Well,  I  suppose  you  are  right,  so 
here  goes  !  "  and  she  ran  lightly  up-stairs  for  her  bonnet. 

She  was  gone  so  long  that  Aunt  Sally  began  to  feel 
"  fidgetty,"  and  went  to  Miss  Post's  room  for  a  little  quiet- 
ing. She  read  aloud  awhile  as  Miss  Post,  taking  advantage 
of  the  brilliant  sunshine,  did  some  of  the  sewing  which  she 
kept  ready  for  such  opportunities,  and  then  drifted  back  to 
the  library,  scolding  herself  for  being  so  silly  as  not  to 
"  settle  to  "  something  instead  of  idling  away  a  whole  morn- 
ing in  such  shameful  fashion.  Margery  came,  with  an 
injured  expression  of  countenance,  to  call  her  to  the  one 
o'clock  dinner  which  she  had,  after  some  deliberation,  agreed 
to  have  served  to  her  when  Muriel  lunched,  for  Muriel  was 
growing  used  to  the  very  simple  late  dinner  with  which  she 
was  experimenting,  and  had  decided  to  keep  on  with  it,  at 
least,  for  the  present. 

"  There  is  no  use,  Miss  Bowne,  for  you  to  let  a  good 
dinner  spoil  by  waiting  for  Miss  Muriel  to  come  back  from 
her  pleasuring,"  said  Margery,  severely,  as  she  saw  signs  of 
hesitation  on  Aunt  Sally's  part,  and  Aunt  Sally  meekly  ac- 
cepted the  hint  and  took  her  solitary  way  to  the  dining- 
room,  endeavoring  to  persuade  herself  that  she  was  neither 
lonely  nor  homesick. 

She  had  not  much  more  than  begun  her  dinner,  when 
Muriel  appeared  with  a  face  so  bright  and  triumphant  that 
Aunt  Sally  exclaimed,  "  Well  ? "  with  eager  interest,  but 
immediately  added: 

"  You're  not  going  to  tell  me  a  word  about  it  till  you've 
had  your  lunch  !  I  can  see  it's  all  right  however  it  is,  and 
that's  enough  for  the  present,  for  I  can  see  that  you're  hun- 
gry, too." 


1 78  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

"  Do  I  look  so  famished  ? "  said  Muriel,  gaily.  '•  I  am 
hungry,  I  cr.n't  deny  it,  so  I  will  mind  you,  this  time  aunty, 
and  tell  my  adventure  in  the  library,  after  the  important 
business  of  eating  is  disposed  of." 

"  I  had  no  trouble  at  all  in  catching  old  Mr.  Keith," 
she  began,  when  they  were  settled  in  the  library ;  "  it 
was  just  as  your  prophetic  soul  foretold ;  he  came  for- 
ward to  meet  me,  and  seemed  really  glad  to  see  me,  dear 
old  gentleman,  and  when  I  asked  him  if  he  could  give 
me  fifteen  minutes,  he  said  an  hour,  if  I  liked,  for  he 
happened  to  be  quite  at  leisure  just  then — though  I  was 
sorry  to  find  that  this  was  because  he  had  not  been 
feeling  well,  and  his  sons  had  persuaded  him  to  let  them 
attend  to  something  he  was  doing.  But  he  insisted  on  it 
that  it  would  not  hurt  him  in  the  least  to  have  a  talk  with 
me  about  my  affairs,  but  that,  on  the  contrary  it  would 
divert  his  mind  from  more  perplexing  matters — he  was 
going  to  say  '  important '  and  caught  himself  up,  but  not 
quite  in  time.  So  he  took  me  into  his  own  office,  which  is 
a  delightful  little  room,  with  pictures  and  books,  and  a 
great  desk,  and  such  nice  chairs  !  And  he  just  let  me  talk 
on  without  once  interrupting  me,  until  I  had  said  all  that 
was  on  my  mind  about  that  row  of  houses,  and  several  other 
things !  I  expected  of  course,  that  he  would  oppose  me 
with  all  his  might,  and  tell  me  that  I  was  utterly  unbusiness- 
like, and  a  great  many  more  unpleasant  things,  but  instead 
of  that — just  think  of  it,  aunty  ! — he  quite  agreed  with  me. 
I  am  very  nearly  sure  that  grandpapa  must  have  talked  to 
him  as  he  did  to  me,  from  one  or  two  little  things  he  said. 
We  have  not  quite  settled,  yet,  -what  it  will  be  best  to  do — 
to  repair  those  houses,  and  make  them  as  comfortable  as 
they  can  be  made,  or  to  tear  the  whole  row  down,  and  put 
up  either  another  row  of  small  houses,  or  else  one  large 
building,  divided  into  apartments.  Mr.  Keith  says  he 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS,  1 79 

thinks  that  if  the  right  person  could  be  found  to  manage  it, 
that  would,  perhaps,  be  best,  and  when  I  said  that  they 
wouldn't  have  any  yards  if  we  did  that,  he  said  they  could 
only  have  such  very  small  ones  anyhow,  on  account  of  that 
great  warehouse  at  the  back,  that  he  did  not  think  that  con- 
sideration need  count,  and  that,  in  the  apartment-house,  we 
could  probably  give  them  more  comfort  for  their  money  than 
in  any  other  way.  The  greatest  trouble  is  to  know  what 
to  do  with  them,  while  the  change,  whatever  it  may  be,  is 
being  made.  I  spoke  of  the  possibility  of  sending  at  least 
some  of  them  to  places  in  the  country  for  the  summer,  and 
he  said  that  if  work  could  be  found  for  them,  that  would  be 
a  very  .good  plan,  but  he  was  afraid  that  most  of  them 
would  be  unable  to  leave  their  occupation  in  the  city.  So 
he  said  that  need  not  be  settled  just  yet — that  the  first 
thing  to  do  was  to  have  plans  and  estimates  made,  and  see 
what  the  cost  of  the  different  ways  of  building  would  be, 
and  which  could  be  ready  for  occupancy  in  the  shorter 
time.  He  thinks  the  apartment  house  could  be,  and  I  saw 
that  he  inclined  to  that  instead  of  a  number  of  small  houses 
— but  I  don't  know — it  seems  to  me  that  I  would  rather 
have  ever  so  small  a  house  all  to  myself,  than  an  apart- 
ment of  twice  as  many  rooms  with  half  a  score  of  other 
families.  Wouldn't  you  ?  " 

"  Yes,  as  far  as  it's  a  matter  of  taste  and  sentiment,  I 
would,  of  course  ;  but,  Muriel,  I  made  one  discovery  by  liv- 
ing in  a  flat.  I  never  could  have  got  through  the  work  as 
I  did,  and  kept  well,  if  there  had  been  any  stairs  for  me  to 
climb  a  dozen  times  a  day.  I  sometimes  think  they  use 
women  up  more  than  all  the  rest  of  their  work  put  together. 
Of  course,  if  you  build  a  big  apartment  house,  you'll  have  to 
put  in  an  elevator — though  if  every  body  felt  as  I  do  about 
them,  they  would  not  be  a  very  profitable  patent !  But  it's 
a  good  thing  that  every  body  doesn't — and  with  that  to  save 


l8o  WAYS  AND  MEANS, 

them  from  going  up  and  dov/n  stairs,  and  other  arrange- 
ments to  keep  them  from  interfering  with  each  other,  I 
think  there  might  be  advantages  which  the  small  houses 
could  not  have." 

"  Perhaps,  after  all,  we  ought  to  take  the  one  which  will 
cost  least,"  said  Muriel,  "  there  are  so  many,  many  things 
to  do  with  the  money.  And  that  reminds  me — Mr.  Keith 
says  that  two  of  his  recent  investments  for  me  have  turned 
out  so  unexpectedly  good,  that  they  will  about  make  up,  for 
this  year  anyhow,  for  the  almost  no-interest  on  the  money 
invested  in  these  houses.  At  first  I  felt  sort  of  provoked,  as 
if  I  had  tried  to  make  a  present  and  the  person  to  whom  I  was 
making  it  had  insisted  upon  paying  its  full  value  !  But  then 
it  suddenly  struck  me  how  foolish  it  was  to  feel  that  way,  for 
it  seems  to  me  that  it  grows  upon  me  every  day,  how  much 
there  is  to  do,  and  how  a  person  could  spend  three  or  four 
times  my  income,  and  only  make  a  beginning  toward  all  the 
things  that  are  needing  to  be  done.  But  wasn't  it  wonder- 
ful, Aunt  Sally,  when  I  was  so  afraid  to  speak  to  Mr.  Keith 
about  this  matter,  that  he  should  have  met  me  half  way,  and 
.made  it  all  so  easy  ?  " 

"  Yes,  it  was  wonderful,  child — but  its  a  wonder  that's 
been  repeated  many  times  since  Christian  screwed  up  his 
courage  to  pass  the  lions, and  found  they  were  chained.  It 
makes  matters  a  great  deal  easier  for  you,  there's  no  doubt 
about  that.  But,  my  dear,  before  you  begin  the  fight  I 
should  think  you'd  wish  to  enlist,  and  say  for  whom  you  are 
fighting." 

"  If  it  were  only  as  simple  as  that  !  "  said  Muriel,  sigh- 
ing. 

"  Well,  and  isn't  it  ?  '  He  that  is  not  with  Me  is  against 
Me/  we  are  told,  and  '  whoso  gathereth  not  with  Me  scatter- 
eth.'  And  you'll  not  grow  any  surer  by  waiting  ;  if  you're 
like  most  people,  it  will  work  the  other  way.  I  wish  you'd 


IV A  YS  AND  MEANS.  l8l 

be  willing  to  go  to  somebody  wiser  than  either  of  us,  and 
have  a  talk  about  this  matter." 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Muriel,  doubtfully,  "  it's  so  hard  to 
talk  about  such  things.  The  only  person  I  can  think  of,  to 
whom  I  would  care  to  talk,  is  May's  minister,  Mr.  Dwight. 
I've  been  with  her  several  times  to  hear  him,  and  liked  him 
better  every  time,  but  wouldn't  he  think  it  strange  to 
have  a  perfect  stranger  coming  to  him  for  advice  and 
help  ? " 

"  I  should  think  he'd  be  used  to  it  by  this  time.  He  must 
have  been  in  the  ministry  a  good  while,  and  been  called  on 
by  a  good  many  people  before  now.  I've  heard  him 
preach,  and  met  him,  too,  and  I  think  you'd  be  very  sure  of 
an  honest  adviser,  if  you  were  to  go  to  him.  And  if  you'll 
tell  me  what  you'll  gain  by  delaying,  perhaps  I  will  admit 
that  you'd  better  put  it  off  awhile  longer  ! " 

"  I  suppose  it  is  simply  cowardice,"  said  Muriel.  "  I 
fancied  at  first  that  it  did  not  greatly  matter — that  I  could 
work  just  as  well  before  I  settled  it  as  afterward,  and  that 
all  I  needed  was  simply  to  do  my  best  ;  it  was  something 
May  said,  which  first  made  me  feel  differently,  and  now  I 
feel  anxious  enough  to  '  enlist,'  and  yet  afraid." 

"  My  dear,"  said  Aunt  Sally,  earnestly,  "  the  last  time  I 
heard  this  very  Mr.  Dwight  preach,  he  said  something  that 
I  hope  to  remember.  I  don't  know  whether  he  quoted  from 
somebody  else  or  not,  but  what  he  said  was,  '  It  is  not  we 
who  are  holding  fast  to  God,  but  God  who  is  holding  fast  to 
us.'  Just  you  try  to  remember  that,  and  let  go  of  yourself  ! 
And  don't  be  worried  if  you  can't  have  that  experience  which 
is  described  so  often  in  books,  but  which,  I  must  say,  has 
never  co.ne  under  my  observation — of  a  sudden  '  conversion,' 
as  it  is  called,  and  every  thing  plain  and  easy  and  joyful  after- 
ward. It's  the  work  of  a  lifetime,  it  seems  to  me,  as  a  gen- 
eral thing,  when  people  are  really  made  over,  and  the  great 


1 82  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

thing  is  not  to  get  discouraged  because  it  doesn't  all  come 
at  once.  '  First  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  after  that  the  full 
corn  in  the  ear  ' — not  the  whole  thing  at  once,  the  day 
after  we've  planted  it !  Yet  that's  what  some  people  seem 
1  to  expect." 

"  I'll  go  to  Mr.  Dwight,"  said  Muriel,  with  sudden  reso. 
lution.  "Perhaps  May  will  go  with  me  the  first  time,  and 
introduce  me  to  him  ;  she  knows  him  very  well  ;  but  I'll  go, 
anyhow  !  " 

May  acceded  to  Muriel's  proposal  with  heartfelt  pleasure. 
Miss  Forsythe  had  for  many  years  attended  the  church  of 
which  Mr.  Dwight  was  rector.  May  had  grown  up  in  it, 
and  joined  its  communion  when  she  was  about  sixteen,  and 
her  attachment  to  it  was  very  strong. 

Mr.  Dwight,  who  was  between  sixty  and  seventy  years 
old,  was  not  what  is  termed  a  "  popular  preacher  ;"  his  ser- 
mons were  very  earnest  appeals  for  immediate  and  vigorous 
action — for  proofs  of  faith  and  love  in  the  lives  of  his  hearers. 
And  the  influence  of  his  church  grew  steadily  ;  not  rapidly, 
but  very  surely,  and  what  was  gained  was  nearly  always 
kept. 

Muriel  was  surprised,  in  looking  back  at  her  first  interview 
with  him,  to  think  how  completely  he  seemed  to  understand 
her,  and  how  entirely  unembarrassed  she  had  felt.  And  she 
lost  no  time,  after  leaving  him,  in  securing  a  pew  in  his 
church.  May  suggested  a  vacant  sitting  of  which  she  knew 
not  far  from  their  own,  in  a  pew  already  partly  occupied,  but 
Muriel,  mindful  of  her  still  vague  ideas  as  to  the  occupancy 
of  her  house,  preferred  to  have  a  whole  pew  at  her  disposal. 

"  Of   course,  there  are  advantages  in  having  the  seats 
free,"  she  said  to  May,  "  but  I  don't  think  I  should  ever 
feel  really  at  home  in  a  church  where  I  sat  in  a  different 
seat  every  Sunday.     The  only  thing  I  don't  like  about  it  is, 
that  it  sometimes  makes  it  harder  for  strangers." 


W 'A  YS  AND  MEANS.  183 

"  But  it  ought  not  to,"  replied  Ma"y.  "  Now,  in  our  church 
there  are  half-a-dozen  pews  which  are  never  rented,  and  the 
sexton  has  orders  never  to  let  any  one  wait  a  minute  ;  to  be 
sure  and  show  them  at  once  to  one  of  these  pews.  And  we 
know  enough,  I  hope,  not  to  scowl  if  any  one  by  chance  takes 
a  seat  in  any  of  our  pews.  It's  like  so  many  other  things — 
people  mix  up  the  abuse  of  it  with  the  use." 

May's  belief  that  no  one  who  was  thoroughly  in  earnest 
was  ever  "  put  in  a  hole "  vindicated  itself  in  Muriel, 
who,  while  it  seemed  to  her  just  as  difficult  and  solemn  an 
undertaking  to  identify  herself  with  the  host  which  was 
marching  against  the  forces  of  evil  as  it  had  ever  done, 
felt  it  impossible  to  remain  pledged,  even  by  silence,  to  those 
evil  forces.  And  Mr.  Dwight  only  enforced  the  lesson  of 
Aunt  Sally's  chosen  text,  "  He  that  is  not  with  Me  is  against 
Me." 

"  There  is,  there  can  be,  no  neutral  party,"  he  added ; 
"  those  who  think  they  belong  to  it  are  really  worse  than  the 
open  enemies.  You  are  too  young,  Miss  Douglas,  to  re- 
member the  war  of  the  rebellion,  or  you  would  have  a  far 
more  vivid  conception  than  I  can  give  you  of  the  regard  in 
which  the  so-called  '  sympathizers  '  were  held  during  that 
war  ;  people  who  accepted  all  the  advantages  of  the  side  of 
law  and  order,  while  in  their  hearts  they  defied  the  govern- 
ment which  secured  them  these  benefits.  And  remember 
the  granted  prayer  of  the  man  who  added  to  his  '  Lord,  I 
believe  ! '  the  trembling  cry,  '  Help  Thou  mine  unbelief.' " 

And  it  was  to  this,  when  Muriel  made  the  profession  which 
she  feared  to  make,  lest  she  should  disgrace  it,  that  she  held 
fast.  She  did  believe,  with  all  her  heart,  in  the  Love,  the 
Sacrifice,  the  Power,  which  made  all  things  possible  ;  it  was 
her  own  heart  and  soul  that  she  doubted,  and  these  she  tried 
earnestly  to  put  out  of  her  own  keeping  into  the  wounded 
Hands  of  Almighty  Love.  No  sudden  clearing  away  of 


1 84  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

doubts  and  fears  followed  ;  indeed,  it  seemed  to  her,  as  it 
so  often  seems  at  such  times,  as  if  the  conflict  grew  more 
fierce.  But  a  new  hope,  a  new  strength,  upheld  her  :  the 
courage  to  walk  on  through  darkness,  if  need  be,  awhile 
longer,  before  she  should  come  out  into  the  light. 

She  was  more  eager  than  ever  now  to  let  slip  no  "  oppor- 
tunity," and  she  very  soon  had  ample  and  healthful  occupa- 
tion for  all  her  time  and  thought,  cheered  and  encouraged 
inexpressibly  by  the  cordial  sympathy  and  intelligent  help- 
fulness of  the  elder  Mr.  Keith.  She  did  not  know  why  it 
always  happened  now  that  it  was  he  instead  of  his  son  who 
attended  to  her  business,  but  she  was  very  thankful  to  have 
it  so.  She  would  have  been  both  vexed  and  amused,  could 
she  have  known  the  "  true  inwardness  "  of  this  pleasing 
state  of  affairs. 

Mr.  Douglas  Keith  had  felt  an  uneasy  suspicion,  during 
Muriel's  first  interview  with  his  father,  which  led  him  to  in- 
vestigate matters  as  soon  as  she  was  gone.  He  had  no  dif- 
ficulty in  doing  so,  for  his  father  had  not  the  slightest  inten- 
tion of  concealing  the  purport  of  this  interview,  and  quietly 
explained  to  his  son  the  steps  which  were  to  be  taken  in 
furtherance  of  Muriel's  wishes. 

A  habit  of  deference  to  his  father  kept  the  son  silent  until 
the  explanation  was  finished,  then  his  patience  seemed  to 
desert  him,  and  as  Aunt  Sally  would  have  expressed  it,  he 
"freed  his  mind,"  and  in  no  measured  terms. 

"  Do  you  really  mean,  father,"  he  exclaimed,  in  tones  of 
intense  annoyance,  "  to  encourage  Miss  Douglas  in  this 
crazy  scheme,  which  is  evidently  only  a  beginning,  and  will 
probably  lead,  by  no  very  slow  degrees,  to  the  squandering 
of  the  entire  property,  when  a  few  words  of  advice  from 
you  could,  perhaps,  in  this  early  stage  of  the  proceedings,  put 
a  stop  to  the  whole  business  ? " 

"  I  like  neither  your  tone  nor  your  language,  my  son," 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  185 

said  Mr.  Keith,  dryly,  "  but  it  will  save  us  both  future  an- 
noyance for  me  to  be  perfectly  explicit  now  ;  you  will  un- 
derstand, however,  that  what  I  am  about  to  tell  you  is  a 
confidence,  and  by  no  means  to  be  repeated  to  any  one.  In 
the  last  interview  of  any  length  which  I  held  with  Mr. 
Hardcastle,  he  expressed  a  very  strong  wish  that  his  grand- 
daughter should  be  assisted,  in  every  possible  way,  in  what- 
ever charitable  schemes  might  suggest  themselves,  or  be 
suggested  to  her,  provided  they  were  sensible  and  practi- 
cable, while  at  the  same  time  I  was  requested  to  make  sure 
that  she  did  not  leave  herself  without  a  sufficient  income 
for  her  own  support  in  the  home  in  which,  her  grandfather 
said,  it  was  his  especial  wish  to  secure  her,  that  she  might 
be  entirely  independent.  He  did  not  wish  the  principal 
encroached  upon,  but  he  did,  very  decidedly,  wish  that  she 
should  be  perfectly  free  to  spend  the  entire  income.  By 
your  own  account  she  has  shown  business  capabilities  unu- 
sual in  a  woman  of  her  age  and  inexperience.  I  find  her 
perfectly  reasonable,  and  singularly  amenable  to  advice  and 
suggestion.  I  also  find  a  pleasure,  which  fully  compensates 
me  for  the  slight  loss  of  time,  in  attending  personally  to 
her  affairs,  and  I  shall  not,  L  think,  be  obliged  to  call  upon 
you  again  in  this  matter.  But  if  I  should,  I  hope  what  I 
have  just  said  will  be  sufficient  to  your  practical  under- 
standing of  the  true  position  of  the  case,  and  that  no  further 
explanation  on  my  part  will  be  necessary.  And  I  need  not 
say,  I  hope,  that  should  you  have  any  conversation  with  her 
in  the  future  about  her  arrangements  and  wishes,  you  will 
avoid  any  thing  which  may  appear  like  an  offer  of  advice." 
Mr.  Douglas  Keith  had  listened  to  this  exordium  with, 
at  least,  outward  patience,  and  had  carried  on  while  listen- 
ing a  sort  of  accompaniment  of  thoughts  suggested  by  it. 
By  dint  of  heroic  effort  he  cleared  his  cloudy  face  and  an- 
swered his  father  readily  and  cheerfully. 


1 86  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

"  You  are  quite  right,  sir,  and  I  was  quite  wrong,  but  you 
must  admit  that  I  sinned  ignorantly.  And  since,  as  I  find, 
you  are  so  much  better  posted  in  this  business  than  I  am, 
and  so  much  better  qualified  in  every  way  to  give  advice,  I 
I  hope  It  may  be  as  you  say,  and  that  you  will  find  yourself 
able  to  attend  to  Miss  Douglas's  affairs  unaided — an  ar- 
rangement which,  as  I  more  than  suspect,  she  would  greatly 
prefer  herself." 

"  I  should  not  wonder  if  she  would,"  replied  Mr.  Keith, 
with  an  indulgent  smile.  He  was  very  glad  to  have  this 
conversation  with  his  son  end  in  this  manner,  instead  of  in 
a  marked  disagreement  and  "  unpleasantness,"  and  he  was 
careful  not  to  refer  to  the  subject  again,  when  he  could 
avoid  doing  so. 

So  Muriel's  good  fortune,  as  she  considered  it,  contin- 
ued, and  her  liking  for  the  elder  Mr.  Keith  grew  and 
strengthened  with  every  interview,  while  he  surprised  him- 
self by  the  warm  interest  with  which  he  entered  into  the 
project  which  was  now  engrossing  her. 

The  two  schemes  of  a  large  apartment  house  and  a  row 
of  small,  entirely  separate  dwellings,  had  been  freely  can- 
vassed by  Muriel  with  Aunt  Sally,  Miss  Forsythe,  May  and 
Miss  Post,  and  by  Mr.  Keith  with  a  city  missionary  and  an 
architect.  Some  more  of  the  families  in  the  row  had  also 
been  talked  with  ;  notes  from  all  sides  had  been  compared^ 
and  the  result  was  a  compromise  which  was,  if  possible,  to 
secure  the  advantages  of  both  plans  and  avoid  the  disad- 
vantages which  were  most  obvious  in  both.  The  house  in 
the  center  of  the  row,  which  was  to  be  separated  from  the 
others  by  a  narrow  alley  on  each  side,  was  to  contain  a  large 
kitchen,  laundry  and  bakery,  where,  especially  in  summer, 
the  tenants  of  the  row  might,  for  small  payments,  be  al- 
lowed to  do  the  work  which  would  otherwise  necessitate 
fires  in  their  separate  houses.  The  too-immediate  neigh- 


W AYS  AND  MEANS.  187 

borhood  of  the  warehouse  was  a  great  disadvantage,  but 
Muriel  reflected  that  if  she  began  a  search  for  another 
equally  desirable  site  for  the  houses,  the  delay  would  prob- 
ably be  great,  whereas,  by  prompt  action,  the  row  of  new 
houses  might  be  ready  for  occupancy  early  in  the  autumn. 
Besides,  if  thi  warehouse  were  a  disadvantage  in  oneway, 
there  was  compensation  in  the  thought  that  it  made  impos- 
sible any  more  objectionable  neighbors  than  its  high  walls, 
and  this  was  a  great  deal. 

The  next  step  was  to  find  temporary  accommodation  for 
the  dozen  families,  some  of  them  with  lodgers  and  board- 
ers "  thrown  in,"  for  the  four  months  which  the  contractor 
required.  It  was  very  possible,  he  said,  that  the  houses 
would  be  ready  sooner  than  in  the  time  for  which  he  stipu- 
lated, but  much  would,  of  course,  depend  upon  his  work- 
men, and  he  could  not  be  sure. 

Some  of  the  tenants,  upon  hearing  what  was  in  prospect 
for  them,  very  willingly  bestirred  themselves,  and  soon  found 
temporary  quarters  ;  others  seemed  annoyed  at  being  dis- 
turbed, even  for  their  own  good,  and  could  hardly  be  con- 
vinced that  the  whole  thing  was  not  a  design  to  "  raise  the 
rent  on  them." 

It  was  when  things  were  in  this  uncomfortable  state,  and 
Muriel  was  taking  her  first  dose  of  real  discouragement, 
that  Miss  Prudence  Harley  came  to  the  front,  and  Muriel 
was  quick  to  admit  that  a  great  good  was  the  outcome  of  a 
comparatively  small  evil.  Miss  Prudence  had,  at  least,  a 
speaking  acquaintance  with  all  the  dwellers  in  the  row  ;  she 
was  on  friendly  terms  with  many  of  them,  and  they  all 
seemed  to  like  and  respect  her,  so  that  a  few  well-chosen 
words  from  her  went  further  than  any  thing  Muriel  could 
say.  She  went  about,  too,  more  than  many  of  the  others 
did,  and  she  "  took  in"  a  daily  paper,  so  that  she  could 
give  valuable  suggestions  to  the  seekers  of  temporary  lodg- 


1 88  WAYS  A ND  MEANS. 

ings.  She  herself  had  formed  a  plan  as  soon  as  she  was 
told  of  the  building  scheme.  She  had  a  married  sister  liv- 
ing near  a  remote  country  village,  and  with  her  she  proposed 
to  board  for  the  summer.  She  recognized  Muriel's  real  in- 
terest in  the  affairs  of  her  tenants,  and  also  the  fear  of  seem- 
ing intrusive,  which  held  her  back,  sometimes,  in  a  way 
which  was  misunderstood,  and  in  response  to  Muriel's 
hesitating  question  :  "  May  I  ask  whether  you  have  found 
a  home  for  the  summer,  Miss  Harley,  and  if  you  have, 
where  it  is  ? "  she  not  only  gave  the  desired  information, 
but  a  good  deal  more,  for  after  mentioning  where  she 
expected  to  bestow  herself  for  the  summer,  she  went  on 
to  say  : 

"  She  has  five  children,  my  sister  has,  and  her  husband 
farms  a  good  bit  of  land,  so  she  hasn't  much  time  for  fool- 
ing, and  she's  always  saying  that  she  doesn't  see  why  I 
won't  live  with  her,  and  let  what  work  I  choose  to  do — she 
knows  about  how  much  that  would  be — answer  for  my 
board.  If  she  was  poor  or  ailing  I'd  do  it,  though  I  don't 
pretend  I'd  enjoy  it,  for  I  wouldn't,  and  I  never  could  see 
why  a  single  woman  must  needs  hang  on  behind  any  body's 
wagon,  if  she  has  sense  enough  to  drive  one  of  her  own ! 
But  just  for  one  summer  it's  different.  I  shall  pay  my 
board,  whatever  she  says,  and  then  I  shall  feel  free  to 
do  her  work  or  my  own,  to  come  or  go,  just  as  I  please,  and 
to  carry  out  a  plan  that's  come  into  my  head.  I  don't 
know  any  place  where  fruit  is  as  plenty  or  as  cheap  as  it  is 
up  there.  I  spent  a  week  there  last  fall,  and  they  were 
giving  away  some  of  the  best  apples  I  ever  saw,  and  Jane 
said  it  had  been  pretty  much  the  same  way  with  all  the 
small  fruits.  You  see,  there  are  acres  and  acres  of  uncleared 
land — it's  a  wild  sort  of  country — and  the  wild  strawberries 
and  raspberries,  and  blackberries  and  huckleberries  are  all 
to  be  had  for  the  picking,  and  all  first-rate,  she  says.  She 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  189 

showed  me  some  red  raspberries  she'd  put  up,  and  they 
looked  like  red  Antwerps  rather  than  wild  ones.  So  what 
I  mean  to  do  is  to  spend  the  most  of  my  time  putting  up 
fruit  in  one  way  and  another — a  few  preserves  and  a  few 
more  canned,  but  most  of  them  dried,  for  I  can  sell  them 
cheaper.  I  have  no  doubt  of  being  able  to  sell  ail  I  can 
pick  and  put  up,  in  the  course  of  the  winter,  and  I  think  the 
change  will  do  me  good,  into  the  bargain." 

"  I  think  that  is  a  capital  plan,"  said  Muriel,  enthusiasti- 
cally,"and  I  only  wish — do  you  know  that  woman  who'lives 
at  the  other  end  of  the  row,  Miss  Harley  ?  " 

"  Mrs.  Boyce  ?  Yes,  I  know  her  to  speak  to,  but  not  very 
well.  She's  not  what  you'd  call  a  neighborly  person,  poor 
soul,  and  I'm  sure  I  don't  blame  her." 

"  Why  ?     Has  she  had  any  great  trouble  recently  ?  " 

"  I  should  say  she  had  !  Her  husband  and  eldest  son 
drank  themselves  to  death  a  few  months  ago,  and  though 
she  never  opened  her  lips  about  it,  she  must  have  gone 
through  enough  to  kill  a  good  many  people  before  they  suc- 
ceeded in  killing  themselves,  and  though  her  daughter's  a 
good  enough  girl,  I  do  believe,  she's  a  lively,  pretty,  flirty 
little  piece,  without  as  much  sense  as  she  might  have.  The 
two  boys  are  only  about  twelve  and  fourteen,  I  should  judge, 
and  they  seem  like  nice,  steady,  well-behaved  little  fellows, 
but  I'm  afraid  she's  too  strict  and  stern  with  them,  and  the 
sister  doesn't  seem  to  care  a  great  deal  about  them.  The 
oldest  boy  is  cash-boy  in  one  of  the  uptown  dry-goods 
stores,  and  the  youngest  goes  to  school.  The  girl  is  a  clerk 
in  a  big  millinery  store,  and  with  her  wages  and  what  the 
mother  makes,  sewing  day  and  night,  pretty  much,  I  judgCj 
and  the  little  the  boy  gets,  they  manage  to  live,  but  I  think 
it  must  be  a  tight  squeeze  !  You  see,  the  girl  has  to  keep 
herself  neat  and  tidy-looking,  or  she'd  soon  lose  her  place, 
and  I  never  saw  any  body  with  such  a  knack  of  making 


1 90  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

something  out  of  nothing.  And  that's  one  cause  of  her 
being  misjudged,  poor  littleth  ing  !  She  comes  sailing  out  in 
one  of  her  fix-tips,  that  looks  as  if  she'd  been  melted  and 
poured  into  it,  and  then  the  neighbors  say  she  takes  all  her 
earnings  to  keep  herself  in  finery,  while  her  mother  kills 
herself  to  keep  the  house." 

"  Do  you  know  her  first  name  and  the  name  of  the  shop 
in  which  she  works  ?  "  asked  Muriel. 

"  Her  name  is  Lizzy,  and  she  works  for  Bryan  &  Co., 
somewhere  on  Summer  street,  I  don't  know  the  number." 

"  Why,  I  know  that  store  well,"  exclaimed  Muriel,  for  it 
was  the  one  in  which  Miss  Forsythe  was  a  book-keeper." 

"  She  has  a  good  place  as  far  as  the  neighborhood  and 
the  way  she's  treated  go,"  said  Miss  Prudence,  "  but  I 
don't  believe  she  gets  very  good  wages — she  hasn't  been 
there  long,  for  one  thing." 

"  Then,"  said  Muriel,  "  it  would  not  be  possible  for  that 
family  to  go  out  of  town  for  the  summer — I  suppose  Lizzy 
and  the  boy  would  both  lose  their  situations  ?  " 

"  Yes,  they  would,  and  they  both  had  trouble  enough  to 
get  them,  I  reckon.  And  Robert's  such  a  nice  steady  boy 
that  I  look  for  him  to  get  an  advance  if  he  sticks  to  his 
work,  as  I  think  he  will.  They're  very  friendly  with  me, 
both  those  little  fellows,  and  I  always  contrive  to  get  one  of 
them  if  I  have  an  errand  to  be  done.  Robert  is  free  after 
seven  o'clock  in  the  evening,  and  glad  enough  to  earn  a 
little  extra  money." 

"  If  there  were  only  some  nice,  safe,  quiet  place  for 
Lizzy  and  Robert  to  stay  for  a  month  or  two,"  said  Muriel, 
talking  her  thoughts  aloud,  "what  a  good  plan  it  would  be 
to  find  board  at  a  farm-house  for  Mrs.  Boyce  and  the  little 
boy.  What  is  his  name,  Miss  Harley  ?  " 

"  Fred,  his  brother  calls  him,  but  his  mother's  always  very 
particular  to  say  Frederick.  I've  no  more  time  to  talk  just 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  191 

now,  Miss  Douglas.  I'm  very  sorry,  but  it's  my  baking-day, 
and  I  begin  to  smell  the  ginger-bread,  but  if  you'll  drop 
in  the  next  time  you're  down  this  way  I  think  I  can  tell  you 
something  you'd  like  to  hear/' 

"Oh,  I  hope  it  isn't  spoiled  !  "  said  Muriel.  "  Please  go 
right  away.  I'll  come  to-morrow  afternoon,  if  you'll  not  be 
busy  then — will  you  ?  " 

•'  No,  indeed,  and  I'm  very  sorry  to  seem  so  rude  now, 
but  I  can't  help  it  !  "  and  she  dashed  into  her  kitchen  with 
a  hasty  "  Good-by  !  "  thrown  over  her  shoulder  as  she 
went. 

Muriel  perplexed  herself  with  plans  for  the  Boyces  all 
the  way  home,  but  arrived  at  no  satisfactory  settlement  of 
the  problem,  so  she  spread  it  before  Aunt  Sally  as  they 
amicably  discussed — the  one  her  dinner,  the  other  her  toast 
and  tea. 

A  long  and  interesting  discussion  followed,  but  still 
seemed  to  suggest  nothing  until  after  they  had  been  com- 
fortably settled  in  the  library  for  some  little  time,  and  Mu- 
riel was  reading  aloud  the  "  leader"  in  the  evening  paper. 
She  suddenly  interrupted  herself  to  exclaim  : 

"  Aunt  Sally  !  I  do  wonder  if  this  isn't  my  second  op- 
portunity !  " 

"  How  you  made  me  jump,  child  ! "  said  Aunt  Sally, 
poking  about  for  the  stitch  which  her  "  jump"  had  caused 
her  to  drop.  "  If  what  isn't  your  second  opportunity  ?  " 
The  war  we're  likely  to  have  with  China,  if  some  of  the 
fools  don't  die  suddenly,  and  pretty  soon  ?  " 

"  No,  dear  ! "  said  Muriel,  laughing  at  the  vindictiveness 
with  which  this  suggestion  was  made.  "  I  will  confess  that 
my  mind  had  wandered  quite  away  from  China  to  my  row, 
and  settled  upon  the  house  where  Mrs.  Boyce  lives,  and  I 
was  going  all  over  it  again — how  nice  it  would  be  to  send 
her  to  the  country  and  let  her  sew  there,  or  do  housework 


I92  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

for  the  overworked  '  Jane,'  while  little  Fred  picked  berries 
and  gathered  apples  for  Miss  Prudence,  if  only  we  had  the 
right  sort  of  place  in  which  to  put  the  flighty  Lizzy  and 
steady  Robert,  and  all  at  once,  it  flashed  across  my  mind, 
What  are  all  these  empty  rooms  for  ?  " 

Aunt  Sally  leaned  forward  and  kissed  Muriel  on  the  fore- 
head— a  somewhat  unusual  amount  of  demonstration  on  her 
part — and  said,  "  My  dear,  I've  been  the  worst  sort  of  a 
coward  !  That  very  thought  came  into  my  head  when  you 
first  told  me,  but  I  didn't  dare  to  mention  it.  I  thought 
you'd  think  me  a  meddlesome  old  fool  !  " 

"  Aunty  !  If  you  dare  to  use  such  language  about  your- 
self and  me,  I'll  sue  you  for  defamation  of  character  !  Now, 
promise  me,  solemnly,  that  after  this  you'll  tell  me  your  in- 
spirations as  fast  as  they  occur  to  you,  and  not  wait  to  have 
them  wrung  out  by  my  halting  suggestions  !  " 

"  I  can't  quite  promise  that,  child.  I  think  of  too  many 
queer  things.  But  at  least  I'll  not  be  afraid  to,  again,  and 
not  misjudge  you,  as  I  see  I've  done  this  time." 

"  I  suppose  I  must  take  that  and  be  thankful  !  But  now, 
just  listen  !  You  know  there's  a  room  right  back  of  Miss 
Post's  bedroom,  opening  into  the  entry  ;  it's  a  little  bit  of  a 
room,  but  bright  and  sunny,  and  as  Lizzy  would  be  away 
all  day,  I  think  it  would  be  large  enough,  for  I  mean  her  to 
spend  a  good  many  of  her  evenings  with  Miss  Post  !  And 
there's  the  corresponding  room  in  the  third  story,  which 
would  do  for  the  boy.  Don't  you  see  ?  I  could  put 
them  in  some  of  the  other  rooms,  of  course,  but  I  have  a 
feeling  sense  that  I  shall  want  those  larger  rooms  before 
long,  not  for  larger  people,  but  for  people  who  don't  go  out 
to  work  all  day.  And  besides,  I've  an  idea  that  Mrs.  Boyce 
is  as  proud  as  Lucifer,  and  would  not  let  them  accept  any 
very  heavy  obligations." 

"  That's  very  likely,"  said  Aunt  Sally,  "  and  at  any  rate 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  193 

it  will  be  better  for  them  not  to  make  the  obligation  too 
heavy.  There's  one  thing  you'll  have  to  learn,  my  dear, 
for  the  sake  of  the  people  you  want  to  help,  and  that  is, 
never  to  let  your  help  take  the  form  of  charity,  when  you 
can  give  it  in  the  form  of  wages." 

"  But  aunty  !  How  can  I  always  ?  In  a  case  like  this, 
for  instance  ?  " 

"  I  can't  answer  for  always,  but  in  this  particular  case  I 
think  I  can.  You  can  get  whoever  has  charge  of  the  garden 
this  summer,  or  the  '  grounds,'  I  s'pose  I  ought  to  say,  to 
give  the  boy  a  small  stint  of  work  to  do  after  he's  had  his 
supper.  It  will  not  hurt  him  a  bit,  after  he's  been  shut  up 
all  day  in  a  stuffy  shop,  to  take  off  his  coat  and  work  out- 
of-doors  for  an  hour  before  he  goes  to  bed,  and  it  will  keep 
him  out  of  mischief,  too.  And  as  for  Lizzy,  you  can  just 
let  her  know  that  Miss  Post  is  her  charge  for  the  evening, 
to  be  read  to  or  talked  to,  or  have  her  clothes  mended,  as 
the  case  may  be,  and  she'll  be  a  worse  girl  than  I  judge  her 
to  be  from  what  we've  heard,  if  she  can  spend  her  evenings 
for  a  month  or  two  with  that  dear,  good  little  woman,  and 
not  be  the  better  for  it !  " 

"  Aunt  Sally,  you  ought  to  be  a  general,  with  a  large 
army  under  your  command,  or  a  stateswoman  at  the  head  of  a 
party  !  With  you  at  my  back  to  explain  things  to  me  and 
for  me,  I  can  stand  any  amount  of  exhortation  from  other 
people  !  " 

"  I  hope  you  can,  child,  for  you're  in  a  fair  way  to  get  it ! 
I'll  explain  any  thing  to  you  that  you  want  me  to,  and  that  I 
understand  myself,  but  explaining  things  for  you  is  another 
part  of  the  speech — that's  your  affair  !  " 

"  You  hard-hearted  woman  !  I  suppose  it  is,  though. 
Now  you  are  going  to  lay  your  little  head  down  on  the  back 
of  your  chair  and  take  forty  winks,  while  I  go  and  read  for 
half  an  hour  to  Miss  Post ;  I  haven't  seen  her  all  day." 


194  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

The  half  hour  lengthened  to  an  hour,  for  Muriel  was  too 
full  of  the  new  "  opportunity"  not  to  talk  of  it,  and  Miss 
Post's  ready  interest  and  sympathy  led  her  on  ;  but  Aunt 
Sally,  although  wide-awake  when  she  returned,  did  not  look 
as  if  she  felt  slighted 


CHAPTER  X. 

A   SMALL    BEGINNING. 

*'  A  little  spark  from  a  high  desire 
Shall  kindle  others,  and  grow  a  fire. 

Enough  for  us  if  our  lives  begin 
Successful  struggles  with  grief  and  sin. " 

ONE  pleasant  result  to  Muriel,  of  her  capture  of  Aunt  Sally, 
was  the  frequent  intercourse  which  it  brought  about 
with  the  tribe  of  Raymond,  in  which  were  included  not  only 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Osborne,  but  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Craig  as  well,  and, 
to  a  less  extent,  but  still,  as  he  insisted,  just  as  emphati- 
cally, Mrs.  Craig's  brother,  Geoffry  Hamilton.  Muriel  was 
well  satisfied  that  his  visits  were  about  as  one  in  six  to  those 
of  the  other  members,  for  he  attracted  her  least  of  all.  She 
had  an  exaggerated  prejudice  against  people  who  "  went  in 
for  fashion."  It  had  held  her  back  from  intimacy  with  Kate 
and  Julia  Hardcastle,  and  made  her  doubtful,  at  first,  about 
forming  a  friendship  with  Mrs.  Craig,  for  Julia  Hardcastle 
had  given  her  a  sketch  of  Fanny  before  her  marriage,  and 
the  astonishment  which  had  been  caused  by  the  announce- 
ment of  her  engagement  to  a  poor  artist,  which,  if  some- 
what highly  colored,  was  not  exactly  untruthful,  and  which 
had  made  Muriel  much  more  reserved  to  Mrs.  Craig  than 
she  was  to  Alice  and  Marion  Raymond,  until  she  had  con- 
vinced herself  that  Fanny  was  "  genuine."  She  did  not 
feel  sufficiently  interested  in  Geoffry  Hamilton  to  seek  for 
proofs  of  his  genuineness,  and  a  slight  and  entirely  uncon- 
scious stiffness  in  her  manner  to  him  hindered  him  from 


196  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

finding  her  especially  attractive — indeed,  although  he  was 
too  polite  to  tell  Aunt  Sally  so,  he  rather  wondered  at  her 
evident  fondness  for  Muriel,  while  Muriel,  in  her  turn,  felt 
an  even  greater,  but  equally  silent,  surprise  at  Aunt  Sally's 
regard  for  him  !  It  had  not  taken  Muriel  long  to  see  that, 
while  Fanny  was  still  popular  in  a  decidedly  fashionable 
set,  she  gave  herself  no  trouble  to  retain  her  hold  upon  it, 
refusing  far  more  invitations  than  she  accepted,  and  enter- 
taining only  in  the  simplest  and  most  unostentatious  way, 
and  seeming  to  be  entirely  careless  of  criticism  from  people 
with  whom  she  was  not  intimate.  Her  spontaneous  fun  and 
brightness  were  very  charming  to  Muriel,  and  had  a  good 
effect  upon  her,  and  a  warm  liking  for  each  other  was  not 
long  in  developing  between  them. 

Another  acquaintance  which  was  added  to  her  list  through 
Aunt  Sally's  residence  with  her,  was  that  of  the  self-ap- 
pointed "city  missionary,"  Mr.  Duncan.  He  had  called 
several  times,  asking  only  for  "  Miss  Bowne  "  each  time, 
before  Muriel  met  him,  and  she  had  remarked  to  Aunt 
Sally  that  she  did  not  think  he  was  very  polite  ! 

Aunt  Sally,  according  to  her  usual  tactics,  defended  the 
absent,  saying  that  she  supposed  Mr.  Duncan  did  not  feel 
at  liberty  to  ask  for  Miss  Douglas  unless,  or  until,  he 
received  a  formal  invitation  to  call  upon  her  ! 

"  Very  well,"  replied  Muriel,  "  if  you  really  and  truly 
think  he  is  waiting  for  that,  aunty,  you  can  tell  him,  the 
next  time  he  comes,  that  I  shall  be  happy  to  have  him  call 
on  me.  I  suppose  you  needn't  tell  him  that  my  reason  for 
being  happy  will  be  that  I  wish  to  extract  some  useful  infor- 
mation from  him,  for  application  to  my  Row,  and  especially 
that  house  in  the  middle  of  it,  which  is  going  to  be  so  much 
too  small  for  all  that  ought  to  go  in  it ! " 

"  For  all  you'd  like  to  put  in  it,  you  mean  !  It  will 
easily  hold  the  things  that  are  really  necessary,  and  you 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  197 

must  just  decide  what  those  things  are,  and  stick  to  them  ! 
And  I'll  tell  Mr.  Duncan  you'd  like  to  see  him  ;  but  I  will 
not  make  any  promises  for  him.  He  does  very  little  visit- 
ing, except  of  the  kind  you've  heard  about,  and  he  may 
think  he  hasn't  time  to  be  making  new  acquaintances." 

"  Now,  aunty,  you  are  backing  out  in  a  way  which  is 
altogether  inexcusable  !  And  if  you  feel  so  doubtful  about 
Mr.  Duncan's  honoring  me  with  his  acquaintance  because  I 
have  the  misfortune  to  be  rich,  you  needn't  ask  him  to  call 
on  me — I'd  rather  you  wouldn't,  now,  for  I  can  prime  you 
with  the  questions  I  wish  him  to  answer,  and  he  will  prob- 
ably answer  them  much  more  fully  and  satisfactorily  to  you 
than  he  would  to  me." 

"  Well,  I  shouldn't  wonder  if  he  would,"  said  Aunt  Sally, 
with  her  usual  candor,  and  Muriel,  fancying  that  she  felt  a 
little  annoyed  by  the  turn  the  conversation  had  taken, 
changed  the  subject,  which  was  not  again  reverted  to  for 
several  days. 

Muriel  did  not  forget  her  promise  to  go  and  have  a  talk 
with  Miss  Prudence  Harley,  when  the  mind  of  the  latter 
should  not  be  distracted  by  the  odor  of  baking  ginger- 
bread. 

"  You  may  not  think  any  thing  of  what  I  want  to  tell 
you — but  then  again  you  may  ! "  prefaced  Miss  Harley, 
when  she  had  invited  Muriel  into  the  little  parlor  over 
the  shop,  leaving  intervening  doors  ajar  that  she  might  be 
able  to  hear  the  bell.  "  I  don't  know  myself,"  she  con- 
tinued, "  whether  its  worth  while  or  not,  but  here  it  is,  such 
as  it  is  !  Up  there,  where  my  sister  lives,  you  know,  there 
used  to  be  a  big  iron-works,  but  the  man  failed,  and  the 
place  was  shut  up  and  left  to  fall  to  pieces,  and  the  hands 
drifted  off  to  other  places,  most  of  'em,  though  a  few  settled 
down  in  the  neighborhood  and  took  up  land.  The  houses 
that  were  built  for  the  hands  must  have  been  well  built,  for 


I98  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

a  good  many  of  them  are  standing  yet  and  not  so  badly  out 
of  repair  that  it  would  cost  much  to  make  them  quite  fit  to 
be  lived  in  in  warm  weather,  anyhow.  I  had  a  notion,  two  or 
three  years  ago,  of  taking  one,  so  as  to  be  near  Jane — she's 
only  a  mile  out  of  the  village — so  I  went  to  look  at  them 
and  asked  all  about  the  rent  and  the  prices  of  victuals  in 
the  neighborhood,  and  all  such  questions.  I  found  that  the 
best  of  them  could  be  had  for  two  dollars  a  month,  and  the 
worst  for  a  dollar.  There's  a  little  bit  of  ground — not  much 
— goes  with  each  house,  a.nd  they're  in  a  good  healthy  neigh- 
borhood. Victuals,  generally  speaking,  are  very  cheap  ; 
meat  for  eight  cents  a  pound,  eggs  for  twelve  cents  a  dozen, 
milk  for  four  or  five  cents  a  quart,  and  all  the  fruit,  for  the 
picking,  that  any  body  could  want,  as  I  said.  Groceries  are 
a  little  dearer  than  they  are  here  in  the  city,  which  is  no 
wonder,  when  you  look  at  the  road  between  the  village  and 
the  nearest  railroad  station.  And  flour  is  quite  as  dear, 
anyhow,  as  it  is  here,  for,  for  some  reason  or  other,  they 
don't  seem  to  raise  any  wheat  hardly  in  the  neighborhood. 
But  buckwheat's  plenty  there,  and  that  and  rye  and  Indian 
meal  are  a  good  deal  cheaper,  and  if  rye  bread's  made 
right,  it's  good  enough  for  any  body,  especially  when  you 
can  have  buckwheat  cakes  and  corn-meal  cakes  and  bread 
to  make  a  variety.  Now  I  suppose  you  see  what  I'm  driv- 
ing at,  Miss  Douglass  ;  if  the  folks  here  in  the  Row,  who 
are  not  tied  fasc  by  the  fear  of  losing  their  places,  would 
just  pick  up  and  go  to  Hartswell — that's  the  name  of  the 
village — they  could  live  for  about  half  of  what  it  costs  them 
here,  and  I  don't  think  they'd  have  any  trouble  finding 
work,  such  as  washing  and  ironing  and  cooking,  by  the 
day,  for  half  the  farmers  in  the  valley  and  the  people  in  the 
village  take  summer  boarders,  and  are  in  hot  water  aboiC 
help  all  the  time.  And  those  who  had  a  little  money  before- 
hand could  do  what  I'm  going  to  do,  put  up  fruit  for  the 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  199 

winter,  enough  for  their  own  use,  anyhow,  and  enough  to 
sell  if  they  liked.  And  eggs — there  are  two  or  three  ways 
of  putting  them  away  so  that  they'll  keep  for  months,  and 
you  know  they're  often  as  high  as  fifty  cents  a  dozen  here 
in  the  winter  and  spring." 

Muriel  had  listened  with  eager  interest  to  all  Miss 
Prudence  said,  it  seemed  so  exactly  to  answer  her  wishes 
and  half-formed  plans,  but  at  the  conclusion  of  the  descrip- 
tion she  asked  the  very  natural  question  : 

"  And  why  did  you  not  take  one  of  the  houses  after  all, 
when  you  found  the  rent  was  so  very  small  and  living  so 
cheap  ?  " 

Miss  Prudence  looked  a  little  foolish  as  she  replied,  much 
less  briskly  than  she  usually  spoke  : 

"  Well,  to  tell  the  truth,  after  I'd  been  a  week  at  Jane's  I 
made  up  my  mind  that  I  couldn't  stand  it  for  a  whole  sum- 
mer, it  was  so  awfully  lonesome  !  I  didn't  take  the  house 
right  at  first,  for  I  had  a  sort  of  misgiving  about  it,  and 
thought  I'd  better  wait  and  see  how  it  went,  up  there,  first. 
And  I  concluded  that  if  it  seemed  as  lonesome  as  the  grave 
in  her  house,  with  all  her  children  around,  I  should  go  rav- 
ing mad  in  a  house  all  by  myself,  in  a  place  where  you  could 
hear  a  pin  drop,  and  where  they  didn't  so  much  as  drop  the 
pin ! " 

"  Then  how  do  you  think  you  can  stand  it  this  summer  ? " 
asked  Muriel,  laughing  a  little  at  this  vivid  description  of 
silence  that  could  be  felt. 

"  Oh,  I  shall  only  stay  two  months,"  said  Miss  Prudence, 
"  and  I  shall  be  so  busy  all  the  time,  if  I  do  what  I've  laid 
out  to  do,  that  I'll  have  no  time  for  moping  !  " 

I've  written  down  the  name  and  address  of  the  man 
who  is  agent  for  those  houses,  or  was  when  I  was  last 
up  there,  and  I  suppose  he  is  yet,  and  he  will  be  glad 
enough  to  answer  any  questions  you  may  want  to  ask  him 


200  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

about  them  if  he  thinks  there  is  any  prospect  of  renting 
them/' 

"  Thank  you,  you  are  very  kind,"  said  Muriel,  as  she  took 
the  slip  of  paper.  "  I  will  write  at  once,  and  then  see  how 
many  of  the  people  could  go  so  far  away  without  losing 
places  which  they  wish  to  keep.  I  wish  they  could  all  go,  it 
would  be  so  nice  !  " 

"  Perhaps  some  of  'em  don't  hanker  after  the  country  any 
more  than  I  do,"  said  Miss  Prudence,  laughing.  "  We'll  hope 
so,  anyhow  !  " 

And  with  this  philosophical  hope  Muriel  endeavored  to 
console  herself  as  she  went  home. 

She  had  not  failed  to  keep  her  appointment  with  the 
ragged  regiment,  and  had  been  much  relieved  to  find  that  it 
was  not  necessary  to  make  an  example  of  any  body  ;  they  had 
all  scrubbed  their  hands  and  faces  with  a  vigor  which  had 
brought  color  into  the  palest  cheeks,  and  two  or  three,  no 
doubt  with  an  eye  to  possible  results,  had  evidently  made  an 
attempt  upon  their  hair  !  Muriel  had  hoped  for  a  chance  to 
make  a  beginning,  were  it  ever  so  small,  toward  civilizing 
and  enlightening,  but,  though  she  rated  herself  soundly, 
afterward,  for  cowardice,  she  could  not  summon  courage  to 
do  any  thing  more  than  offer  a  similar  appointment  for  the 
ensuing  week,  which  offer  was  hilariously  accepted  by  the 
whole  group,  which  this  time  contained  a  dozen. 

Aunt  Sally  had  made  one  or  two  suggestions  which  Muriel 
had  thought  very  good  when  she  heard  them,  but,  in  the  face 
of  the  unabashed,  hardened-looking  little  creatures  who 
gathered  about  her,  all  her  ideas  fled,  save  that  of  keeping 
the  slight  hold  upon  them  which  she  had  already  obtained. 

"  There's  more  fellers  wants  to  come.  I  had  to  lick  two 
to  keep  'em  from  coming  to-day,"  announced  the  youth  of 
voluminous  trowsers. 

"  You  did  it,  may  be,  but  you  didn't  have  to  !  "  said  Mu- 


WA  YS   AND  MEANS.  2OI 

riel,  with  as  much  gravity  and  severity  as  she  could  muster. 
"  That's  no  way  to  make  people  do  what  you  wish  !  "  she 
added. 

"  '  Deed  then,  its  the  only  way,  lady  !  "  he  answered,  grin- 
ning up  in  her  face  as  he  spoke.  "  There's  nothing  else 
they  mind  but  a  real  good,  solid  licking  !  " 

"But  you  wouldn't  like  any  body  to  treat  you  that  way  ; 
you  don't  think  it  is  the  best  way  to  make  you  mind  !  "  she 
pursued,  sure  of  her  advantage,  this  time. 

"  It's  the  only  way,  I  tell  you,"  he  repeated,  "  whether  its 
me  or  him,"  punching  his  nearest  neighbor  in  the  back,  as 
he  spoke,  "  or  any  of  the  boys.  They  fotched  me  up  that 
way,  and  see  the  fine  boy  I  am  !  " 

It  was  impossible  to  tell  whether  he  was  in  earnest  or  not. 
His  face  had  grown  suddenly  grave,  but  he  winked  auda- 
ciously at  her  as  he  spoke.  Then,  returning  to  his  "  last  re- 
mark but  one,"  he  inquired  : 

"  Shall  I  let  those  other  fellers  come  next  time  ?  There's 
four  of  them,  but  when  I'd  licked  the  two,  the  other  two 
said  they  didn't  care  nothing  about  coming  and  never 
had  ! " 

Muriel  thought  a  moment.  Of  what  use  was  it  ?  Then 
she  remembered  Aunt  Sally's  encouragement — it  was  better 
than  nothing,  it  might  be  a  beginning  of  better  things,  to 
teach  them  to  be  clean.  And,  next  time,  she  might  see  her 
way  to  something  more. 

"  Yes,"  she  said,  "  you  must  let  them  come.  Only  re- 
member all  the  hands  and  faces  must  be  perfectly  clean  ! 
And  I  shall  have  something  for  each  of  you  besides  the 
cake  c.nd  stick  of  candy,"  she  added,  with  a  sudden  inspira- 
tion. "  Not  any  thing  to  eat,  but  something  to  keep. 
Now  I  must  go.  Good-by." 

With  a  deafening  war-whoop,  and  a  chorus  of  "  Thank 
you,  lady,  thank  you  !  "  the  motley  crowd  dispersed,  but  the 


202  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

champion  followed  her  with:  "  Say  !  Just  tell  me  what  the 
game  is,  lady  !  I'll  not  give  you  away  !  " 

"  You'd  not  believe  me  if  I  were  to  tell  you,"  said  Muriel, 
feeling  quite  free  from  embarrassment,  now  that  she  had 
only  one  to  deal  with. 

"  Yes,  I  would,"  he  said,  presently,  "  without  it  was  some- 
thing awful  steep.  I'd  believe  you,  because  you  kep'  your 
word  about  meetin'  us  again.  I  didn't  much  think  you 
would,  neither  !  " 

"  Then  what  made  you  wash  your  face  and  hands,  and 
come  to  the  place  ? "  asked  Muriel,  briskly. 

"  Well,  it  wasn't  so  much  of  a  job,  but  what  it  was  worth 
while  to  risk  it,  or  I  thought  it  wasn't  'till  I'd  begun  on  it !  " 
he  replied.  "  But  come  on,  I'll  not  peach.  What  is  it  you're 
arter,  anyway  ?  " 

"  Look  right  at  me  !  "  said  Muriel,  wheeling  round  and 
fixing  her  eyes  on  his.  "  I  want  to  help  you  all  to  behave 
better — to  stop  being  dirty,  and  mean,  and  using  bad  words, 
and  telling  lies,  and  'licking'  each  other.  I  want  to  help 
you  to  grow  up  into  decent  men  and  women.  Do  you  un- 
derstand me  ?" 

"  Oh,  yes  !  "  and  he  winked  again.  "  It's  the  same  as 
tracks,  and  Sunday-school,  arter  all  !  I  thought  so  !  "  and 
he  chuckled  over  his  own  penetration.  "  But  it's  not  ex- 
actly the  same,  neither  !  "  he  added,  with  cheerful  patron- 
age. "They  don't  give  you  nothing  to  eat,  them  Sunday- 
school  ones,  and  they  talk  you  tired  into  the  bargain  !  So 
long  as  you  don't  do  nothing  worse  than  make  us  wash  our 
hands  and  faces,  and  the  cake  and  candy's  as  prime  as  it 
was  to-day,  we'll  come,  you  may  bet  your  sweet  life  on  that ! 
And  I  promise  you,  solemn,  I'll  lick  the  first  one  of  'em 
that  tries  any  impudence  on  you,  for  you're  not  half  a  bad 
sort !  " 

He  scuttled  down  an  alley  they  were  passing,  and  she 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  203 

saw  him  no  more.  But  one  resolve  she  instantly  made. 
She  would  find  a  room  before  her  next  meeting  with  them, 
and  do  something  to  arouse  their  attention,  and  secure 
their  coming  again.  And  she  thought,  with  no  little  vexa- 
tion, how  useful  Mr.  Duncan  might  be  at  this  crisis,  if  she 
might  only  have  a  frank  talk  with  him,  and  get  his  advice. 
She  felt  a  good  deal  like  the  fisherman  who  had  uncorked 
the  bottle  containing  the  imprisoned  gent,  but,  unlike  that 
astute  individual,  she  knew  of  no  way  by  which  she  might 
bottle  the  imps  whom  she  had  evoked.  So  she  decided  to 
swallow  her  pride,  which  rebelled  at  the  idea,  and  "  prime  " 
Aunt  Sally,  as  she  had  threatened  to  do,  with  questions  for 
Mr.  Duncan ;  she  would  go  and  see  Mr.  Dwight,  too,  and 
no  doubt  he  both  could  and  would  help  her.  As  for  the 
room,  Miss  Harley  could  probably  suggest  one,  for  it  had 
struck  Muriel  that  there  was  very  little  about  the  neighbor- 
hood and  the  people  which  she  did  not  know.  Yet  it  did 
not  seem  as  if  she  had  gathered  her  information  from  an 
ordinary  love  of  gossip,  but  rather  that  it  might  afford  her 
suggestions  for  helping  and  serving  her  neighbors. 

Muriel  had  been  walking  slowly  toward  the  street  where 
she  expected  to  take  a  car,  as  she  thought,  but  she  was  still 
in  the  region  of  courts  and  alleys,  when  it  occurred  to  her 
that  it  was  not  yet  too  late,  if  she  should  hurry,  to  go  back 
to  Miss  Harley  and  inquire  about  the  room  ;  then,  if  she 
knew  of  none,  it  would  give  her  more  time  to  think  of 
possibilities  and  make  suggestions. 

Muriel  hastily  pulled  out  her  watch,  without  noticing 
that  a  "  man  all  tattered  and  torn  "  and  with  a  most  repuls- 
ive face,  was  skulking  along  the  pavement  a  few  steps  be- 
hind her,  watching  her  furtively  as  he  shambled  along. 
The  moment  he  saw  the  watch,  he  sprang  to  her  side,  gave 
a  dexterous  thrust  to  the  chain,  which  instantly  released  it, 
with  one  hand,  while  at  the  same  time  he  held  the  other 


204  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

over  her  mouth.  The  whole  thing  was  so  sudden,  and  so 
utterly  unexpected,  that  she  could  not  have  cried  out,  even 
had  he  not  thus  hindered  her  from  doing  so,  and  the  street, 
just  then,  was  entirely  empty,  for  it  is  a  well-ascertained 
fact  that  no  policeman  was  ever  known  to  be  within  sight 
or  hearing  at  such  a  time.  The  ragamuffin,  however,  was 
destined  to  prove  the  truth  of  an  old  adage,  for  before  he 
could  make  off  with  his  booty,  he  was  "  mercilessly  collared 
from  behind,"  with  a  pressure  of  knuckles  on  his  throat, 
which  produced  a  smothered  howl,  while  a  stern  voice  said  : 

"  Give  me  that  watch  !  " 

He  held  it  out  abjectly,  saying  in  hoarse  tones,  which  he 
tried  to  make  supplicating  : 

"  Let  me  go,  boss — just  this  once,  it's  the  first  time,  I'll 
Svvear  it  is  !  And  I  was  starving  !  " 

Muriel  began  to  recover  from  her  paralysis  of  fright,  and 
looked  up.  She  never  forgot  the  picture  she  saw.  A  tall, 
straight  young  fellow,  with  broad  shoulders,  long  arms,  and 
a  look  of  splendid  health  and  strength  about  him,  held  in 
his  strong  grasp  a  man  so  brutalized  by  drink,  and  dishon- 
esty, and  every  mean  vice,  that  it  did  not  seem  possible  they 
could  belong  to  the  same  species.  Her  rescuer's  hat  had 
fallen  off,  revealing  a  shock  of  waving  yellow  hair,  which 
stood  up,  on  the  top  of  his  head,  in  a  manner  suggestive  of 
a  mane.  Large,  fiery-looking  blue  eyes,  set  deep  in  their 
sockets,  drew  attention  from  the  fact  that  the  other  fea- 
tures, though  strongly  marked,  were  not  at  all  regular.  It 
was,  altogether,  a  striking-looking  face,  not  easily  to  be  for- 
gotten, and  Muriel,  as  soon  as  she  saw  it,  knew,  from  vari- 
ous things  she  had  heard  Aunt  Sally  say,  and  from  the 
neighborhood  in  which  she  had  met  him,  that  this  must  be 
Neil  Duncan. 

"  You  will  excuse  me,  madame  "  he  said,  as  he  gave  her 
her  watch  with  his  disengaged  hand — as  if  one  were  quite 


"  A  tall,  straight  young  fellow  held  in  his  strong  grasp  a  man  so  brutalized 
by  drink,  dishonesty,  and  every  mean  vice,  that  it  did  not  seem  possible  they 
could  belong  to  the  same  species."  P.  204. 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  205 

sufficient  to  hold  the  thief — "  if  I  advise  you  to  leave  this 
neighborhood  as  soon  as  possible  and  not  to  come  to  it 
again  unattended,  unless — "  and  he  hesitated,  as  if  fearful 
of  giving  offense — "  unless  you  can  leave  at  home  any  thing 
which  might  prove  a  temptation  to  dishonest  people — No 
you  don't  !  " 

For  the  man,  with  a  sudden  wrench  and  squirm,  had 
almost  succeeded  in  twisting  himself  out  of  his  coat,  and 
making  off. 

"  I  never  thought,"  gasped  Muriel.  "  I  didn't  care  so 
much — for  the  watch — but  he  had  his  horrible  hand  all 
over  my  face  !  " 

"  It  could  not  have  been  pleasant,"  responded  Mr.  Dun- 
can, "  but — oh,  there  is  a  policeman  at  last,  and  only  a  half 
a  block  away  !  " 

He  gave  a  loud,  shrill  whistle,  which  at  once  attracted  the 
officer's  attention,  and  brought  him  to  the  spot,  and  the 
man,  whining  and  protesting,  was  handed  over  to  him.  Mr. 
Duncan  gave  his  name  and  address,  engaging  to  appear 
against  the  thief  whenever  he  should  be  needed,  and  then, 
seeing  a  look  of  apprehension  on  Muriel's  face,  he  hastened 
to  reassure  her  with  : 

"You  will  not  be  called  upon  in  any  way.  I  saw  the 
whole  affair,  and  my  testimony  will  be  ample.  And  now," 
he  added,  "  that  that  rogue  is  disposed  of,  you  will  allow 
me,  at  least,  to  put  you  in  a  car  before  I  leave  you  ?  If  I 
am  not  mistaken,  you  are  Miss  Douglas  ?  " 

"  I  am,  and  you  are  Mr.  Duncan  ?" 

"  Yes,  I  was  about  to  mention  my  name,  hoping  that  you 
might  have  heard  Miss  Bowne  speak  of  me,  but,  of  course, 
you  heard  it  when  I  gave  it  to  the  policeman  just  now. 
That  fellow  has  been  '  wanted  '  for  weeks,  but  he  has  been 
too  sharp  for  them  till  to-day." 

"  Where  were  you  when  it  happened  ?    I  did  not  see  any 


206  WAYS  AND  MEANS, 

one,  anywhere,  until  you  dropped,  so  far  as  I  could  ascer- 
tain, from  the  nearest  housetop  !  " 

"  I  did — in  a  sense.  I  had  just  come  from  the  garret  of 
the  corner-house,  and  was  at  the  door  when  that  scamp 
grabbed  your  watch.  But  indeed,  if  you  will  excuse  me  for 
saying  so,  you  offered  him  every  inducement.  Even  if  you 
had  not  just  taken  it  in  your  hand,  he  would  have  had  no 
difficulty  in  snatching  it ;  I  wonder  more  of  that  business 
is  not  done,  when  it  is  made  so  very  easy  for  such  gen- 
try." 

"  I  never  thought,"  said  Muriel,  deprecatingly,  almost 
apologetically,  "  and  I  neither  saw  nor  heard  the  man,  until 
he  had  the  watch  in  his  hand.  I  will  be  more  careful  after 
this — indeed,  I  will." 

The  gentleness  and  humility  with  which  she  spoke  made 
him  realize  that  his  own  tone  had  been  somewhat  dicta- 
torial ;  he  could  not,  of  course,  know  that  the  long  course 
of  reproof  and  repression  under  which  she  had  grown  up 
had  not  yet  lost  its  effect  upon  her  ;  that  she  still  felt  as  if 
she  were  in  fault,  when  any  body,  as  Margery  would  have 
said,  "  faulted  "  her. 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,"  he  said,  with  a  little  confusion.  "  I 
was  not  thinking  what  I  was  saying.  I  am  altogether  too 
much  given  to  offering  my  valuable  advice  '  free  gracious,'  " 
and  he  tried  to  dismiss  tne  matter  with  a  laugh,  but  Muriel 
answered  frankly  : 

"  You  are  quite  right  to  tell  me,  and  I  am  much  obliged 
to  you.  But  I  ought  to  have  thought  of  it  myself,  witho.it 
any  telling.  My  only  consolation  is,  that  it  was  an  old 
offender,  and  one  who  quite  deserves  punishment,  who  will 
suffer  for  my  carelessness.  But  that,"  she  added  thought- 
fully, "  does  not  exculpate  me." 

He  looked  down  at  her  curiously.  It  was  certainly  some- 
thing novel,  for  the  victim  of  a  thief  to  take  blame  to  her- 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  2OJ 

self  for  having  put  temptation  in  his  way !  They  were 
standing  at  the  corner,  now,  waiting  for  the  car  which  was 
discernible  in  the  distance. 

"  I  have  only  just  remembered  what  made  me  look  at  my 
watch  !  "  exclaimed  Muriel ;  "  I  wanted  to  see  if  I  had  time 
to  go  back  and  speak  to  Miss  Harley — she  keeps  a  little 
shop  a  few  blocks  away  from  here — I  would  need  but  a  few 
minutes,  and  it  will  not  be  dark  for  more  than  an  hour. 
You  think  I  would  be  safe,  now,  do  you  not  ?  " 

"  No,"  he  said,  decidedly,  "  I  do  not.  It  is  later  than 
you  think  ;  the  sun  will  set  in  a  very  few  minutes,  and  even 
if  you  were  to  walk  rapidly,  and  not  stop  more  than  five 
minutes,  you  would  not  be  out  of  this  region  before  dusk. 
I  know  where  Miss  Harley's  shop  is,  quite  well — it  is,  let  me 
see — six  blocks  from  where  we  are  standing." 

She  looked  so  genuinely  disappointed,  and  yet  so  instantly 
submissive,  that  he  felt  sorry  for  her,  and  added,  though 
with  a  rather  too  manifest  reluctance  : 

"  If  it  is  important  that  you  should  see  her  this  evening, 
I  will  go  back  with  you.  I  have  nothing  to  do  just  now,  I 
assure  you,  and  the  walk  is  not  worth  considering." 

"  Would  you  really  not  mind  ?  "  she  said,  doubtfully  ;  "  I 
did  wish  very  much  to  speak  to  Miss  Harley.  I  can  say  all 
I  wish  to  say  in  five  minutes,  and  if  you  will  just  put  me  in 
the  car  afterward  I  shall  be  all  safe,  and  so  very  much 
obliged  to  you  !  " 

Her  perfect  simplicity  and  candor  disarmed  him.  And, 
without,  perhaps,  being  aware  of  it,  he  was  gratified  by  the 
version  of  himself,  which  Miss  Bowne  must,  evidently,  have 
given  her.  She  had,  from  the  first,  shown  entire  confidence 
not  only  in  his  courtesy,  but  in  his  judgment  as  well,  and 
who  could  be  proof  against  a  tribute  at  once  so  unconscious 
and  so  flattering  ? 

"  I  assure  you,"  he  said,  far  more  cordially  than  he  had 


208  IV A  YS  AND  MEANS. 

yet  spoken,  "  that  it  will  not  inconvenience  me  in  the  least 
to  go  back  with  you  and  wait  your  pleasure.  Come,  we  are 
losing  time." 

And  he  turned,  pausing  a  moment  for  her  to  follow. 
They  walked  briskly,  and  as  he  did  not  speak,  neither  did 
Muriel,  until  they  reached  Miss  Harley's  shop.  Then  he 
said  : 

"  I  will  wait  here  for  you — pray  do  not  feel  hurried. 
There  is  plenty  of  time." 

She  went  into  the  shop,  the  door  of  which  stood  open, 
for  it  was  one  of  those  days  of  sudden  warmth  which  some- 
times come  in  early  spring,  and  which  seem  so  much  warmer 
than  any  of  the  summer  days  which  follow.  He  changed 
his  position,  so  that  he  could  see,  without  hearing  her,  and 
then  quietly  waited.  Miss  Harley  was  sitting  in  a  low  rock- 
ing-chair in  front  of  the  counter,  but  she  arose  as  Muriel 
entered,  with  apparent  surprise,  and  drew  forward  her  chair, 
evidently  urging  Miss  Douglas  to  sit  down.  But  Muriel 
continued  standing,  and  the  five  minutes  for  which  rhe  had 
stipulated  had  not  quite  elapsed,  when  she  held  out  her  hand 
to  Miss  Harley,  and  turned  to  the  door. 

"  I  am  afraid  you  did  not  give  yourself  sufficient  time," 
said  Mr.  Duncan,  as  she  joined  him  ;  "  you  certainly  did  not 
take  more  than  three  minutes,  and  you  know  you  requested 
five  !  " 

"  I  should  have  needed  quite  five,"  she  replied,  smiling, 
but  not,  he  thought,  very  cheerfully,  "  if  I  had  been  suc- 
cessful, but  I  was  not." 

"  I  am  sorry  to  hear  it,"  he  said,  politely,  but  with  no 
especial  interest  in  tone  or  manner. 

"  Miss  Harley  said,"  and  Muriel  hesitated  a  little  before 
she  went  on,  "  that  you  could  probably  tell  me  what  I 
wished  to  know.  I  dislike  very  much  to  trouble  you,  but  it 
is  just  to  answer  a  question.  I  was  looking  for  a  vacant 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  209 

room — it  need  not  be  very  large — somewhere  in  this  neigh- 
borhood. A  room  on  the  ground  floor  would  be  best,  and  I 
would  rather  it  should  be  in  some  place  that  is  not  occupied 
by  people,  but  I  don't  suppose  I  can  find  that,  so  I  would 
take  one  any  where,  if  the  people  in  the  house  were  respect- 
able. And  Miss  Harley  said  she  thought  you  would  know 
if  I  had  any  chance  of  finding  one." 

It  was  impossible  not  to  see  that  he  looked  annoyed. 
They  had  once  more  reached  the  corner  where  they  must 
wait  for  a  car,  and  were  standing  under  a  gaslight.  Muriel 
was  about  to  add  a  hurried  protest  that  it  was  no  matter  ; 
that  some  one  else  could  probably  tell  her  what  she  wished  to 
know,  when  he  prevented  her  by  saying  : 

"  I  do  know  of  such  a  room  as  you  wish,  I  think,  but  I 
am  not  sure  that  it  would  be  rented  to  you.  You  may  have 
noticed  a  warehouse  just  behind  the  row  of  houses  in  which 
Miss  Harley  lives  ?  The  upper  part  of  it  is  used  for 
storage,  but  the  ground-floor  was  at  one  time  fitted  up 
as  a  sort  of  chapel,  and  it  is  vacant.  It  is  quite  large,  but 
I  think  the  owner  would  be  willing  to  put  up  a  partition,  if 
it  were  made  worth  his  while  to  do  so.  I  have  a  slight  and 
accidental  acquaintance  with  him.  I  thought  I  saw  a  light 
in  the  lower  windows,  late  one  night,  through  the  cracks  of 
the  shutters,  and  hunted  up  a  policeman,  thinking  only  of 
fire,  but  we  found  that  a  gang  of  boys  had  managed  to 
effect  an  entrance  and  were  using  the  room  regularly,  re- 
garding it  as  a  sort  of  robbers'  cave  !  They  had  counted 
on  the  long  disuse  of  the  room,  as  a  sort  of  guaranty  for 
their  security.  Of  course,  they  were  arrested,  and  the  room 
made  secure,  but  the  owner  had  an  exaggerated  sense  of 
his  obligation  to  me,  and  managed  to  find  me  out,  and  I 
meet  him  quite  frequently  on  the  street.  He  would  wish 
to  know  exactly  to  what  use  the  room  was  to  be  put,  but  as 
to  that,  you  could,  of  course,  I  suppose,  satisfy  him  ?  " 


210  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

"  No,  I  am  afraid  I  could  not,"  replied  Muriel,  in  troubled 
tones,  "  for  I  do  not  quite  know  myself  !  " 

Before  she  could  say  any  thing  further,  the  car  stopped, 
and  when  it  started  again  Mr.  Duncan  was  sitting  beside 
her. 

"  Indeed,"  she  said  earnestly,  "  it  is  not  at  all  necessary 
for  you  to  go  all  the  way  home  with  me  !  I  have  only  a 
very  little  way  way  to  walk,  after  I  leave  the  car,  and  I  am 
not  at  all  afraid — pray  do  not  give  yourself  so  much 
trouble  !  " 

"I  am  not  giving  myself  any  trouble,  I  assure  you,"  he  said, 
"but  quite  the  contrary  !  Do  you  know  Miss  Bowne  so 
slightly  that  you  think  she  would  hesitate,  the  next  time  we 
meet,  to  tell  me  what  she  thought  of  me  for  leaving  you 
before  I  saw  you  safely  on  your  own  doorstep  ? " 

It  was  impossible  to  help  smiling  at  the  picture  conjured 
up  by  these  words.  Short  as  Muriel's  friendship  with  Aunt 
Sally  had  been,  she  had  witnessed  one  or  two  of  the  attacks 
of  righteous  indignation  of  which,  it  was  evident,  Mr.  Dun- 
can had  also  some  knowledge,  and  she  could  readily  imagine 
that,  when  she  came  to  relate  her  experience,  it  would  be 
even  as  he  suggested,  should  he  fail  to  make  sure  of  her 
safe  arrival  at  home. 

"  Besides,"  Mr.  Duncan  hastened  to  add,  "  I  will  confess 
to  a  feeling  of  curiosity  concerning  the  room  you  wish  to 
rent,  and  an  inability  to  fathom  your  motive  for  renting  it, 
if  you  do  not  know  exactly  what  you  wish  to  do  with  it." 

"  Nothing  would  please  me  more  than  to  tell  you  about  it, 
if  you  would  care  to  hear,"  said  Muriel,  with  sudden  anima- 
tion, "  for  I  do  not  know  of  any  body  who  could  so  well  tell 
me  what  I  had  better  do  as  you  can." 

And  forthwith  she  told  about  her  experiment  with  the 
candy,  and  the  two  subsequent  appointments. 

"  And  I   really  don't  know  what  to  do  with  them  next 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  211 

time  !  "  she  concluded.  "  I  can't  just  keep  on  bribing  them 
to  wash  their  hands  and  faces." 

"  No,"  he  said  seriously,  "  it  would  hardly  be  worth  while 
to  rent  a  room  just  for  that,  if  it  is  going  to  lead  to  nothing 
else.  But  it  will,  I  think.  I  will  speak  to  Mr.  Sellers,  or 
his  agent,  about  the  room  in  the  warehouse.  I  think  he 
will  let  you  have  it,  and  it  would  not  matter  that  it  is  too 
large.  I  have  an  idea  that  this  enterprise  of  yours  will 
grow.  I  think,  the  next  time  you  meet  them,  if  you  have 
secured  the  room,  I  would  take  them  to  it  and  give  them 
some  music,  have  somebody  there  who  can  sing  them  some 
good  stirring  tunes.  And  begin  quietly  to  collect  their 
names.  You  will  have  to  be  cautious  about  that  though,  or 
they  will  think  you  have  some  evil  design  upon  them ;  they 
are  very  suspicious.  But  you  will  find,  I  think,  that  music 
will  give  you  a  great  hold  on  them,  and  it  is  wonderful  how 
quickly  they  will  catch  up  a  tune.  But  you  must  be  pre- 
pared to  find  it  very  slow  work  and  to  meet  with  number- 
less discouragements.  Just  think — though  you  can't  fully 
realize  them — of  the  places  they  come  from  !  " 

He  was  talking  freely  and  animatedly  now,  and  Muriel 
was  sincerely  sorry  when  the  end  of  her  journey  was 
reached.  He  saw  her  safely  upon  her  doorstep,  as  he  had 
implied  that  he  would,  but  declined  her  invitation  to  enter 
and  see  Miss  Bowr.e. 

"  I  shall  come  to  see  her  very  soon,  though,"  he  said, 
holding  out  his  hand  as  he  spoke,  "  and  you  will  permit  me, 
will  you  not,  to  see  you  at  the  same  time  ?  " 

"  I  shall  be  very  glad  to,"  she  said,  frankly  ;  "you  have 
told  me  so  much  and  so  little,  that  I  want  to  hear  more !  " 

Aunt  Sally  had  grown  decidedly  uneasy  as  the  time  of 
Muriel's  absence  lengthened,  and  listened  to  the  story  of 
her  adventures  with  flattering  attention,  but  the  inference 
she  drew  annoyed  Muriel  not  a  little. 


212  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

"  You  mustn't  go  there  alone  any  more,  my  dear,"  she 
said  ;  "  if  it  happens  that  I  can't  go  with  you,  you  must 
take  Margery  or  Dick.  He  looks  strong.  I  don't  think 
that  wretch  would  have  attacked  you  to-night  if  he'd  been 
with  you,  and  it  will  be  good  for  him,  too.  I  wish  I'd 
thought  of  it  sooner." 

"  But  aunty,"  said  Muriel,  "  I  don't  like  to  ask  him " 

"  You  needn't !  "  interrupted  Aunt  Sally,  briskly,  "  I'll 
do  it  myself  !  " 


CHAPTER  XI. 

A    NEW    OPPORTUNITY. 

"  It  is  only  the  first  step  that  costs." 

MURIEL'S  friendship  with  Dick  had  not  stopped  at  the 
beginning.  He  spent  a  good  deal  of  his  spare  time 
with  her,  now,  and  his  interest  in  all  her  projects  and  visions 
was  so  fresh  and  genuine,  that  she  found  herself  talking  more 
freely  to  him  than  to  any  one  else,  save  Aunt  Sally.  He 
often  made  suggestions  which  pleased  her,  both  by  their 
originality  and  sensibleness,  and,  after  Aunt  Sally's  dictum 
as  to  taking  him  for  a  cavalier  had  been  made  known  to 
him,  and  he  had  accepted  the  position  with  much  pleasure 
and  no  little  pride,  it  occurred  to  Muriel  that  he  would  be 
an  invaluable  helper  with  her  "mob,"  and  she  asked  him,  in 
flattering  terms,  at  least  to  attend  the  first  meeting.  He 
was  a  little  shy  about  it,  until  he  found  that  she  felt  a  slight 
fear  of  some  demonstration  which  would  need  something 
more  than  moral  suasion  to  quell  it  ;  this  idea  was  quite 
sufficient  to  make  him  ready  and  willing  to  go,  and  as, 
fortunately,  the  time  appointed  was  Saturday  afternoon, 
there  would  be  nothing  to  hinder  him. 

When  Mr.  Duncan  called  to  say  that  he  had  obtained  the 
refusal  of  the  room  for  her,  her  pleasure  at  his  success  was 
at  least  three-quarters  consternation  ;  a  fact  which  was  so 
plainly  written  on  her  face,  that  he  felt  both  amused  and 
curious  to  see  how  she  would  manage  with  this  elephant 
which  she  had  taken  on  her  hands.  He  saw  her  glance  at 


214  IV A  YS  AND  MEANS. 

him  once  or  twice  in  a  questioning  manner,  but  she  did  not 
put  her  question  into  words,  and  left  most  of  the  talking  to 
Aunt  Sally.  He  had  no  intention  of  offering  to  assist  her 
with  her  enterprise,  for  his  time  was  fully  occupied  already, 
and  he  had  an  idea,  founded  upon  one  or  two  unpleasant 
and  memorable  experiences,  that,  should  he  do  so,  the 
elephant  would  be  skillfully  transferred  to  his  keeping.  So, 
although  he  answered  the  few  timid  questions  which  she 
managed  to  ask  him  both  kindly  and  fully,  he  did  no  more, 
and,  without  a  word  from  either  of  them  which  suggested 
such  an  understanding,  she  was  made  very  fully  to  under- 
stand that  she  would  be  wise  should  she  ask  only  for  infor- 
mation. 

"  And  all  I  wanted,"  she  wrote,  after  this  interview  was 
over,  "  was  to  have  him  offer  to  come  the  first  time  and 
show  me  how  to  begin  !  He  can  sing — Dick  says  he  sings 
beautifully — and  if  he  would  come,  just  this  first  time,  and 
sing  for  them  and  talk  a  little  to  them,  I  think  I  could  man- 
age after  that,  with  other  people  to  help  me  once  in  a  while — 
Dick  and  Aunt  Sally,  and  May  and  Miss  Forsythe,  and  per- 
haps Julia.  She  is  so  entertaining  and  talks  so  well,  that 
she  could  be  a  great  help  if  she  liked.  But  one  thing  is 
certain,  I  must  not  ask  Mr.  Duncan  for  even  the  smallest 
help,  and  I  will  only  ask  instruction  from  him  when  I  can 
not  possibly  find  out  what  I  wish  to  know  from  any  one 
else.  I  am  sorry.  He  might  have  helped  me  so  much, 
with  so  little  trouble  to  himself,  and  I  should  not  have  pre- 
sumed, as  he  is  evidently  afraid  I  should.  I  must  be  even 
more  disagreeable  than  I  thought  I  was  !  " 

It  was  to  no  one  but  herself  that  Muriel  wrote  this  ;  she 
had  formed  a  habit,  many  years  before,  of  "  writing  herself 
out,"  instead  of  talking  to  any  one  ;  she  had  happened  to 
mention  this  to  May,  and  the  latter  had  been  so  much  amused 
with  the  idea  that  Muriel  had  felt  called  upon  to  defend  it. 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  21$ 

"  Oh  '  you  may  laugh,'  as  Aunt  Sally  says,"  she  said, 
"  but  it  is  a  most  excellent  plan  !  You  well-balanced  peo- 
ple, who  never  boil  over,  no  matter  how  hot  the  fire  is,  or 
who  think  you  don't — for  I  contend  that  you  do,  in  ways 
which  are  quite  imperceptible  to  yourselves — can  not  under- 
stand how  we  ill-balanced  ones  feel  as  if  we  must  say  things  ! 
So  one  day,  years  and  years  ago,  when  I  wanted  most  dread- 
fully to  '  talk  back  '  to  grandpapa,  and  yet  was  afraid  to,  I 
tried  this  plan.  I  wrote  a  long  letter,  saying  every  thing  I 
could  think  of  to  an  imaginary  correspondent  in  whom  I  had 
entire  confidence,  and  I  really  felt  almost  as  much  better  as 
I  should  have  done  if  I  had  said  it  !  And  the  pleasure  is  a 
double  one.  I  don't  know  whether  you  ever  really  told  a 
confidence  to  any  one.  I  did,  just  once,  and  I  repented  in 
dust  and  ashes  in  about  a  week.  So  you  keep  your  letter 
until  that  time  comes,  and  it's  sure  to  come  !  And  then 
you  have  the  pure  pleasure  of  burning  it,  and  that  is  worth 
the  whole  cost  of  the  proceeding  !  " 

The  time  for  burning  the  above-mentioned  complaint 
came  in  less  than  a  week,  for  she  happened  to  hear  of  some 
of  the  work  which  Mr.  Duncan  had  on  hand,  and  felt 
ashamed  of  her  annoyance  with  him,  and  Dick  solved  her 
problem  in  a  most  satisfactory  way.  He  had  belonged  to 
a  small  glee-club,  until  the  cracked  condition  of  his  chang- 
ing voice  had  obliged  him  to  content  himself  for  awhile 
with  the  part  of  a  listener,  and  he  was  on  very  friendly 
terms  with  the  eight  or  ten  other  members,  so  that  when 
Muriel  told  him  of  Mr.  Duncan's  suggestion  about  singing, 
and  lamented  her  inability  to  carry  it  out,  he  thought  at  once 
of  an  arrangement  which  he  could  probably  make  without 
any  difficulty,  but  with  his  usual  common  sense  said  nothing 
about  it  until  he  should  be  able  to  speak  with  certainty. 

"  Why  don't  you  sing  to  them  yourself,  Miss  Muriel  ?  "  he 
asked,  instead. 


2l6  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

"  I  ?  Why,  I  never  took  a  lesson  in  my  life  !  The  little 
warbles  in  which  you  have  occasionally  heard  me  indulge 
about  the  house,  would  not  avail  me  for  a  moment,  if  I  were 
facing  my  '  mob  ! '  Why  did  you  let  your  voice  go  all  to 
pieces  just  now  Dick,  instead  of  waiting  only  a  few  weeks 
longer  ? " 

"  I'm  very  sorry  ;  it  wasn't  intentional!  And  I  am  sure 
you  could  sing  to  them,  if  you  would  only  believe  it.  Miss 
Muriel !  if  you're  going  to  be  the  leader  of  mobs,  by  pro- 
fession, don't  you  think  it  would  be  a  good  plan  to  take 
enough  singing-lessons  just  to  be  able  to  stand  up  and  sing 
with,  or  to  them,  and  not  faint  afterward  ?  " 

"  I  never  fainted  in  the  whole  twenty  years  of  my  con- 
scious existence,  as  you  might  know  merely  by  looking  at 
me,  you  disrespectful  boy  !  But  I  do  believe  it  would  be  a 
good  plan  to  take  singing-lessons.  It's  quite  true  that 
'  music  hath  charms  to  soothe  the  savage  breast. '  I'll  do  it, 
and  I'm  much  obliged  to  you  for  the  suggestion." 

"  Don't  mention  it !  And  to  think,  if  my  voice  were  not 
like  that  of  a  buzz-saw,  how  we  might  have  practiced  duets 
together !  " 

"  Do  not  mourn  !  It  will  be  some  months,  perhaps  years, 
before  I  arrive  at  that  stage,  and  may  be  by  that  time  your 
voice  will  have  returned  to  you,  or  another  one,  even 
better  than  the  dear  departed,  may  have  come  in  its  place." 

They  were  busy  in  the  "  kitchen  garden  "  when  this  talk 
took  place,  for  Dick  had  fulfilled  his  engagement  concern- 
ing it,  and  Margery  remarked  dryly,  that  she  had  seen  a 
farm  planted  with  less  palaver  than  it  took  to  settle  what 
should  go  in  a  place  the  size  of  a  tablecloth  ! 

"  Now  Margery  !  "  said  Dick,  shutting  one  eye,  as  he  spoke^ 
to  see  if  he  had  his  line  straight,  "  you're  only  saying  that 
to  disguise  your  own  deep  interest  in  the  matter  !  You  see, 
if  we  had  thirty  or  forty  acres,  there  would  be  room  for  every 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  217 

thing,  and  we  should  not  be  obliged  to  pick  and  choose,  but 
with  a  place  the  size  of  a  floorcloth,  if  you  like,  for  I'll  not 
submit  to  the  tablecloth,  we  can't  have  every  thing,  and 
the  decision  is  difficult  !  " 

"  It's  so  very  important  what  you  have  !  "  and  Margery 
returned  to  the  house,  smiling  to  herself  as  she  thought  of 
her  "  bairn's  "  bright  color,  and  happy,  animated  face. 

"  That's  none  such  a  bad  boy,  for  a  boy,"  she  thought, 
"and  I'll  own  I'm  thankful  to  him  for  taking  her  out  of  this 
dour  house  ! " 

But  the  house  was  beginning  to  seem  a  great  deal  less 
"  dour,"  even  to  Margery.  The  little  maid  who  was  to  wait 
upon  Miss  Post  had  come,  and,  although  she  was  very  quiet, 
her  sturdy  figure  and  fair,  blue-eyed  face,  with  its  crown  of 
tightly-braided  flaxen  hair  seemed  somehow  to  make  a  dif- 
ference. When  Margery  was  consulted  as  to  where  this 
small  person  should  sleep,  she  astonished  Muriel  by  suggest- 
ing that  a  small  single  bedstead,  which  was  not  in  use,  could 
be  put  up  in  the  corner  of  her,  Margery's,  own  room  ! 

"  But  I'm  afraid  she  will  disturb  you,"  said  Muriel ;  "  we 
know  so  little  about  her,  and  she  may  be  untidy  and  do 
things  that  will  annoy  you." 

"  I'll  risk  that,"  said  Margery,  briefly. 

"I  saw  the  child,"  she  added,  "  the  day  her  aunt  brought 
her  here  to  speak  to  you,  and  I  am  much  mistaken,  which  I 
am  not  often,  if  she  has  not  been  well  taught  and  trained. 
It  was  raining,  you'll  mind,  and  she  held  up  the  point  of  her 
wet  umbrella  that  it  might  not  drip  on  the  kitchen-floor 
while  she  asked  me  where  she  should  put  it  !  There's  not 
many  children  of  her  age  would  have  thought  to  do  that !  " 

Muriel  laughed  heartily. 

"  Oh  Margery  !  "  she  exclaimed,  "  I  am  quite  sure  you 
must  be  a  lineal  descendant  of  the  old  woman  who  tested 
the  princess  with  the  three  pease  !  " 


2l8  WAYS  AND  MEANS, 

"  And  if  I  am  I'm  not  aware  of  it,  for  I  never  so  much  as 
heard  of  her  !  " 

So  Muriel  briefly  related  how  the  old  woman,  doubting  the 
truthfulness  of  the  wandering  princess's  claim  to  royalty, 
placed  the  pease  under  fifteen  mattresses  and  fifteen  feather- 
beds,  upon  which  she  put  the  supposititious  princess  to  sleep, 
and  how,  when  the  latter  came  down  pale  and  haggard  in 
the  morning  and  said  she  had  been  unable  to  sleep,  because 
of  three  great  lumps  in  her  bed,  the  old  woman  admitted 
her  claim  without  further  parley  ! 

"  That's  foolishness,  of  course,"  said  Margery,  "  but 
there's  a  streak  of  sense  in  it,  for  all.  And  as  for  the  little 
girl,  she'd  be  lonesome  maybe,  alone  in  a  strange  room,  and 
that  would  make  her  discontented,  so  she'll  be  best  with  me, 
and  then  I  can  look  after  her  clothes  and  see  that  she  keeps 
herself  clean  and  neat  !  " 

Muriel  felt  alittle  compassion  for  the  small  Scotchwoman, 
but  she  did  not  express  it,  and,  as  the  event  proved,  it  was 
not  needed.  The  child  was  as  well-taught  as  Margery  had 
surmised,  and  gave  no  trouble  in  any  way.  Her  low,  soft 
voice  and  gentle  manner  of  moving  and  speaking  made 
Miss  Post  "  take  to  "  her  at  once,  and  it  was  not  long  before 
these  two  felt  a  real  affection  for  each  other.  She  had  said, 
when  Muriel  asked  her  name  : 

"  It  is  Mary  Macdonald,  ma'am,  but  I've  always  been 
called  Maidie." 

"  And  would  you  rather  be  called  Maidie  still  ?"  inquired 
Muriel. 

"  If  you'd  just  as  soon,  ma'am — but  it  makes  no  matter," 
she  hastened  to  add. 

So  she  was  still  called  by  her  home-name,  even  Margery, 
for  a  wonder,  having  nothing  to  say  about  "  foolishness." 

Muriel  had  no  desire  to  worry  Aunt  Sally  with  her  ap- 
prehensions concerning  her  engagement  with  the  "  mob,'j 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  219 

but  she  could  not  entirely  conceal  the  anxiety  which  she 
felt  as  the  day  approached,  for  the  room  was  engaged  for  a 
term  of  six  months,  and  she  had  not  yet  decided  what  the 
"  exercises "  were  to  be.  She  had  been  so  strenuously 
warned,  by  Mr.  Duncan  especially,  but  also  by  Mr.  Dwight 
and  Miss  Harley,  against  indiscriminate  giving  that  she  felt 
afraid  to  provide  any  thing  beyond  the  promised  cake  and 
stick  of  candy  for  each  one.  But  as  her  friend  of  the  trow- 
sers  had  suggested  that  four  more  "  fellers  "  would  like  to 
come,  and  she  had  given  free  permission,  others  might  be 
added  in  the  interval,  so  she  armed  herself  with  refresh- 
ments sufficient  for  two  dozen. 

"  And  if  more  should  come,  said  Dick,  encouragingly,  "  I 
can  cut  out  and  get  you  enough  to  finish  them  up  at  Miss 
Harley 's — it'll  be  her  baking-day,  you  know." 

He  was  not  able  to  conclude  the  arrangement  for  which 
he  had  been  negotiating  until  Friday  afternoon.  Then  he 
came  to  her  in  triumph,  with  : 

"  It's  all  right,  Miss  Muriel  !  There's  two  of  the  fellows 
in  our  glee  club — Jim  Burnham  and  Charley  Armitage — 
who  say  they'll  be  proud  and  happy  to  come  and  sing  for 
you  to-morrow  afternoon.  And  they  can  sing,  I  can  tell 
you — Jim's  a  tenor,  and  Charley's  a  bass — and  they  think 
it  will  be  a  regular  lark  !  " 

"  Oh  Dick,"  exclaimed  Muriel,  almost  crying  vith  the 
sudden  relief  his  words  brought  her,  "  Will  they  really  do 
it,  and  not  think  it  a  trouble  ?  How  lovely  !  How  kind 
you  were  to  see  about  it." 

"  Oh,  that  was  nothing,"  said  Dick,  who  always  shrank 
from  praise,  "  but  I  couldn't  stand  it  to  see  you  so  worried, 
Miss  Muriel,  and  I  just  told  those  two  fellows  all  about  it, 
and  how  indignant  you  were  with  me  for  having  cracked 
my  voice,  and  I  didn't  even  have  to  ask  them,  they  really 
offered  to  come  and  sing  whatever  you  liked  best,  '  from 


220  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

11  Old  Hundred  "  to  "  My  Grandfather's  Clock,"  '  Jim  said  ; 
but  he  didn't  put  it  as  a  message  to  you,  it  was  just  a  re- 
mark." 

Muriel  laughed  at  this  profound  joke,  in  the  light 
ness  of  her  heart,  in  a  way  which  it  did  Dick  good  to  hear. 
Then  she  said,  struck  by  a  sudden  thought : 

"  Do  they  live  very  far  from  here,  Dick — your  two  kind 
friends  ?" 

"  Why  no,  not  very — somewhere  about  half-way  between 
here  and  the  flat." 

"  And  do  you  think,  if  they  have  no  engagement,  they 
would  mind  coming  here  this  evening,  and  having  a  little 
talk  with  Aunt  Sally  and  me  about  what  we'd  better  do  ?  " 

"  I  don't  believe  they  would — very  much.  To  tell  the 
truth,  Miss  Muriel,  I  thought  you'd  want  to  coach  them  a 
little,  and  so  did  they,  and  they're  to  meet  me  at  the  drug-- 
store  just  below  here,  at  eight  o'clock  ;  they  said  if  you  had 
indicated  to  me  in  any  way  that  you  didn't  wish  to  see 
them,  they  should  insist  upon  my  treating  them  to  soda- 
water,  and  I  said  I  would." 

"  Oh  Dick  !  How  can  I  ever  thank  you  enough  ?  You 
have  thought  of  every  thing.  Must  you  go  ?  It's  such  a 
long  walk  to  take  twice  over  in  one  evening.  Why  can't  you 
just  stay  and  have  dinner  with  me,  or  supper  with  Aunt 
Sally,  according  to  your  '  previous  condition  '  ?  Do  !  " 

"  Thank  you,  I  shall  be  most  happy  !  Now,  Miss  Muriel, 
will  you  give  me  your  solemn  assurance  that  I  didn't  fish 
for  that  invitation  ?  " 

"  Why,  of  course,  you  didn't !  What  put  such  an  absurd 
idea  into  your  head  ?  " 

"  Oh,  well,  when  I  was  coming  away  this  afternoon,  I  had 
told  the  girls  about  the  whole  business — and  they're  as  in- 
terested as  can  be,  by  the  way,  and  very  anxious  to  hear 
how  it  turns  out — and  1  said  that  if  you  really  insisted  upon 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  221 

it,  I  might  stop  to  tea,  or  dinner,  or  whatever  you  call  your 
evening  meal,  with  you,  so  they  need  not  be  alarmed  if  I 
did  not  appear  at  seven,  and  Marion  said  that  of  course,  if  I 
went  in  that  frame  of  mind,  I  should  fish  for  an  invitation  ; 
then  she  got  out  of  it  by  adding,  '  not  consciously,  perhaps, 
but  you'll  do  it  ail  the  same  ! '  And  so  I  wanted  you  to  ena- 
ble me  to  confound  her." 

"  She  deserves  to  be  confounded  !  You  didn't  say  the 
least  thing  like  it,  and  I  shall  tell  her  so  the  first  time  I  see 
her.  Now  you  must  excuse  me  for  a  few  minutes,  while  I 
go  call  Aunt  Sally,  and  tell  Rogers  you  are  going  to  stay  ; 
he  will  feel  deeply  injured  if  I  don't." 

And  as  it  was,  Rogers  said  rather  anxiously,  "  I  wish  I'd 
knowed  about  it  in  time  to  tell  cook  to  have  a  little  ex- 
tra soup,  Miss  Muriel  !  A  young  man  of  Mr.  Richard's 
age  is  apt  to  eat  pretty  hearty,  but  she  can  broil  three 
or  four  more  chops,  and  that  will  make  up,  and  would 
you  think  favorable  of  some  ice-cream  for  dessert  ?  You 
know  there's  nothing  but  fruit  ordered." 

"  Why  yes,"  replied  Muriel — as  she  would  have  replied  to 
almost  any  suggestion  made  in  that  tone  by  her  major- 
domo.  "  I  think  that  would  be  very  nice — here's  the 
money,  and  if  you're  busy  ask  Ann  to  go.  And,  Rogers,  you 
just  give  me  a  very  little  soup,  and  then  there  will  be 
enough,  and  I  think,  after  this — but  I'll  speak  to  Betsy  my- 
self to-morrow." 

Rogers  bestirred  himself  to  put  the  extra  touches 
on  the  table,  which  it  was  his  delight  to  give  when- 
ever he  had  the  excuse  of  "  company,"  and  when  Dick, 
with  Aunt  Sally  hugged  up  to  him  on  one  arm,  and  Muriel 
decorously  "  taking "  the  other,  came  into  the  brightly- 
lighted  dining-room,  he  exclaimed  involuntarily: 

"  How  jolly !" 

"I  don't  know,"  replied  Muriel,  "it's  so  much  too  large, 


222  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

Dick.  If  it  were  not  for  the  fuss  it  would  make,  I  should 
have  a  partition  run  across  the  middle,  but  the  screen  is  bet- 
ter than  nothing,  and  next  winter  I  shall  cut  off  the  lower 
half  with  a  nice  thick  curtain." 

"It's  queer,"  said  Dick,  "how  it  all  depends  on  'the 
point  of  view  ;  '  it's  just  because  it  is  large,  that  I  like  it ; 
though  I  don't  suppose  I  should,  if  it  were  not  so  pretty, 
too." 

Muriel  could  not  long  refrain  from  telling  Aunt  Sally 
about  Dick's  arrangement  with  his  friends,  and  the  old  lady 
looked  at  "  her  boy  "  with  tender  pride,  but  all  she  said 
was : 

"  That  was  like  your  father,  Dick.  You're  growing  more 
like  him  all  the  time." 

There  was  an  animated  discussion  as  to  what  songs  had 
better  be  sung  to  the  mob,  and  they  lingered  so  long  over 
the  dinner-table,  that  Dick,  glancing  at  the  mantle-clock, 
begged  to  be  excused  that  he  might  "  go  after  the  boys." 
He  came  back  with  them  in  less  than  half  an  hour,  and  in- 
troduced them  with  due  gravity. 

"  Miss  Bowne,  Miss  Douglas,  allow  me  to  present  my 
friends,  Mr.  Burnham  and  Mr.  Armitage." 

They  had  such  nice,  frank,  boyish  faces,  that  Muriel  felt 
quite  at  her  ease  with  them,  and  said  gratefully,  as  she  held 
out  her  hand  : 

"  It  is  so  very  good  of  you  to  allow  yourselves  to  be  pre- 
sented, under  the  circumstances,  that  I  don't  know  how  to 
thank  you." 

"  I  am  very  glad  you  don't,  Miss  Douglas,'  replied  Mr. 
Burnham  ;  "  it's  so  dreadfully  embarrassing  to  be  thanked. 
And  we  feel  like  conspirators,  anyhow,  our  motive  is  so  ut- 
terly base." 

"  Please  speak  for  yourself,"  exclaimed  Mr.  Armitage. 
"  I  confess  that  I  am  anticipating  a  lark,  if  you  will  excuse 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  223 

the  expression,  Miss  Douglas,  but  it  is  the  first  time  I  ever 
anticipated  a  philanthropic  lark,  and  I  am  conscious  of 
being  on  a  higher  moral  plane  than  usual." 

They  were  evidently  two  or  three  years  older  than  Dick, 
though  neither  of  them  was  so  tall  as  he  was,  but  it  was 
quite  as  evident  that  they  had  not  yet  begun  to  consider 
themselves  experienced  men  of  the  world,  and  Aunt  Sally 
and  Muriel  exchanged  pleased  glances  as  the  two  boys 
entered  with  interest  upon  the  arrangement  of  the  pro- 
gramme, as  they  insisted  upon  calling  it,  although  Muriel 
said  that  name  was  much  too  alarming. 

"  I  am  to  meet  my  mob  at  five  o'clock  on  Saturday  after- 
noon, and  the  rendezvous  is  only  a  few  blocks  from  the 
'  hall,"  so  I  think,  if  you  will  be  there  at  four,  1  will  send 
Dick  on  to  meet  you,  and  I  will  presently  appear,  conduct- 
ing the  mob." 

"  You  don't  think  you'd  better  let  one  of  us  go  with  you 
to  meet  the  mob  ? "  suggested  Mr.  Burnham,  doubtfully. 

"  No,  thank  you,"  replied  Muriel,  "  Dick  will  walk  with 
me  to  the  trysting  place,  and  see  that  there  are  no  high- 
waymen about,  and  Miss  Harley;  a  friend  of  mine  who 
lives  in  the  end  house  of  the  row  just  in  front  of  the  ware- 
house, has  promised  to  station  a  policeman  where  he  can 
look  on,  without  being  suspiciously  near.  You  see,  I  have 
been  warned  that  these  Arabs  are  very  distrustful,  and  in- 
deed, I  was  accused,  at  the  very  outset,  of  giving  candy 
merely  because  I  wished  to  follow  it  up  with  a '  track,'  so  I 
do  not  mean  to  do  any  thing  which  will  arouse  their  suspi- 
cions. I  think  I  have  one  friend  among  them,  and  I  am 
counting  on  his  influence — perhaps  unduly." 

And  she  described  her  champion,  and  told  of  her 
conversation  with  him,  to  the  great  amusement  of  the 
boys. 

"  He's  not  so  far  out  of  the  way  in  his  views  on  '  licking,' 


224  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

I'm  afraid,"  said  Charley  Armitage,  "but  I  hope  he  will  not 
feel  called  upon  to  mar  the  harmony  of  the  occasion  by 
exhibiting  his  prowess  to-morrow." 

"  Indeed,  I  hope  he  will  not  !  "  replied  Muriel,  so  earnestly 
that  they  all  laughed,  and  Dick  assured  her  that  he  would 
protect  her. 

"  The  girls  somehow  afflict  me  more  than  the  boys  do," 
said  Muriel.  "  I  wonder  if  a  bad  girl  really  is  any  worse 
than  an  equally  bad  boy  ?  She  always  seems  so.  I  tried  to 
fancy  any  of  those  dreadful  little  creatures  playing  with  a 
doll,  or  sewing,  but  I  couldn't  do  it — and  I  heard  one  of 
them  swear  like  a  trooper." 

"  And  yet  you'd  find,  if  you  offered  any  of  'em  a  doll, 
that  you'd  misjudged  them,"  said  Aunt  Sally,  "  and  if  I 
were  you,  Muriel,  that's  just  how  I'd  begin— take  half  the 
room  for  the  girls,  and  lend  them  dolls  to  play  with,  only 
you'll  have  to  see  that  they  have  the  same  ones  every  time, 
and  after  a  little  you  can  begin  to  teach  them  to  sew  for 
the  dolls." 

"  I  might  try,"  she  answered,  doubtfully,  "  and  I  wish  I 
could  think  of  something  to  start  the  boys  with — some  sort 
of  work  that  would  seem  like  play.  Can  you  think  of  any 
thing  ?  "  And  she  turned  to  the  three  boys  present,  who 
were  listening  with  amused  interest. 

"  How  would  it  do  to  have  knives,  and  hammers,  and 
nails,  and  a  lot  of  lumber  for  them?"  inquired  Jim  Burn- 
ham,  with  sudden  animation. 

"  I  think  it  would  be  a  very  good  plan,"  replied  Muriel, 
gratefully.  "  It  was  stupid  in  me  not  to  think  of  it,  but  I 
know  so  little  about  boys." 

"  You'll  know  all  you  want  to  by  to-morrow  evening,  I 
reckon,"  said  Aunt  Sally,  "  but  you're  settling  for  every 
thing  but  to-morrow,  and  I  thought  it  was  that  you  were 
so  anxious  about? " 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  22$ 

They  all  laughed  at  this  gentle  reminder,  but  Jim  Burn- 
ham  said  at  once  : 

"  What  had  you  thought  about  the  songs,  Miss  Douglas  ? 
Were  there  any  in  particular  that  you  wished  ? " 

"  It  seemed  to  me,"  replied  Muriel,  "  that  if  we  could 
find  something  with  an  air  that  was  easy  to  catch,  and  a 
chorus,  and  tell  them  to  join  in  as  soon  as  they  could,  it 
would  fix  their  attention.  I  suppose  there  are  very  few  of 
them  who  can  not  turn  a  tune  ?  There's  an  old  war  song 
that  came  into  my  head  to-day.  My  father  was  in  the  army 
during  the  war,  and  I  found  this  song  put  away  with  some 
books  and  music  of  my  mother's  only  the  other  day,  and  my 
cousin  played  and  sang  it  for  me.  It  is  called  '  Marching 
Through  Georgia  ' — have  you  ever  heard  it  ?  " 

"  We  know  it  quite  well,"  replied  Jim.  "  One  of  us  hap- 
pened to  hear  it,  and  got  it  for  the  club  to  learn,  on  account 
of  the  chorus — there's  a  real  ring  in  it.  And  we  know  some 
negro  songs,  with  choruses,  that  have  simple  tunes — how 
would  they  do  ?  " 

"  Capitally,  I  should  think,"  said  Muriel.  "  We  need  not 
make  the  session  very  long — indeed,  I  was  advised  not  to — 
so  I  think  two  or  three  songs  would  be  enough,  with  the 
cake  and  candy  act." 

"  And  your  speech  !  "  put  in  Dick,  mischievously. 

"  And  my  speech  !  Thank  you.  Besides,  I  was  not  able,  at 
such  short  notice,  to  have  any  benches  put  in  the  hall,  and 
it  will  not  do  to  keep  the  poor  little  sinners  long,  when  we 
can  not  even  ask  them  to  sit  down.  But  I  hope  to  have  the 
benches  by  next  week  ;  be  sure  you  don't  forget  to  speak  to 
that  carpenter  to-morrow,  please,  Dick." 

"  I  will  not.  And,  Miss  Muriel,  if  you'd  like  to  have  the 
benches  for  to-morrow,  very  much  I  might  rush  round  in 
the  morning,  and  see  what  I  could  do  about  hiring  some." 

"  Oh,  no  ;  thank  you  ;  you  are  doing  quite  enough  !  And 


226  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

they  can  sit  on  the  floor  if  they  get  very  tired  ;  I  don't 
believe  it  will  be  a  novel  experience  to  any  of  them  to  do 
that,  judging  from  some  of  the  '  interiors '  I  have  seen 
lately,  in  passing." 

"Aunt  Sally,"  said  Dick, suddenly,  "Miss  Muriel  admits 
that  she  has  a  small  gift  for  each  member  of  the  mob,  but  I 
can  not  induce  her  to  tell  me  what  it  is.  Do  you  know  ? " 

"  Yes,"  replied  Aunt  Sally,  "  I  know,  and  I  don't  see  why 
she  should  be  ashamed  of  it." 

"  You  see,"  said  Muriel,  laughing,  but  flushing  a  little  at 
the  same  time,."  I  saw  that  several  of  them,  in  addition  to 
washing  their  hands  and  faces,  had  evidently  made  an 
attempt  to  mitigate  their  hair,  although  it  looked  as  if 
the  attempt  had  been  made  with  the  traditionary  '  three- 
legged  stool,'  and  as  I  didn't  dare  to  buy  them  any  thing 
worth  while,  in  the  face  of  all  the  solemn  warnings  I  have 
received,  I  am  going  to  give  them  these." 

She  brought  out  a  parcel  from  the  under  part  of  the 
nearest  book-case — for  they  were  sitting  in  the  library — and 
revealed  to  their  gaze  several  dozen  pocket-combs. 

The  boys  laughed,  of  course,  but  Dick  immediately  said  : 

"  That's  a  very  good  idea,  Miss  Muriel.  I  can  remember 
distinctly,  the  winter  we  went  to  the  district  school  at 
Dovedale,  sitting  next  to,  and  envying,  a  boy  who  had  a 
pocket-comb,  which  he  used  with  needless  ostentation  !  " 

"  But  you'll  have  to  explain  what  they  are  for,  Miss 
Douglas,"  said  Jim,  "and  if  you  like,  I  will  take  Dick  or 
Charley  and  give  an  example  while  you're  doing  it !  " 

"Thank  you,"  said  Muriel,  laughing.  "You  are  very 
kind,  but  I  will  not  trespass  on  your  kindness  to  so  large 
an  extent." 

"  Miss  Douglas  will  be  quite  unfitted  for  the  mental  strain 
which  is  before  her,  if  we  stay  any  longer,"  said  Jim,  rising 
as  he  spoke.  "Good-night,  Miss  Douglas.  I  wonder  if 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  227 

you  will  let  us  come  to  see  you  sometimes,  quite  independ- 
ently of  the  mob  ? " 

"  I  will,  with  a  great  deal  of  pleasure,"  she  answered, 
cordially,  and  then  there  was  a  general  hand-shaking,  and 
the  three  boys  went,  but  Dick  pulled  Aunt  Sally  behind  the 
door  and  kissed  her  audibly,  to  the  great  edification  of  his 
comrades. 

"  I'd  like  to  know  the  fathers  and  mothers  of  those  two 
boys,"  she  said,  as  soon  as  they  were  out  of  hearing.  "  What 
nice,  frank,  manly  fellows  they  seem  to  be  !  I've  often 
heard  Dick  speak  of  them,  and  wished  he  would  bring  them 
home  with  him,  but  he's  always  been  queer  about  that.  I 
don't  think  he's  ever  felt  at  home  for  a  minute,  there  at  the 
flat,  and  he  never  seemed  to  want  to  bring  any  of  his  friends 
there.  The  girls  felt  the  change  from  the  large  house  at 
Dovedale,  too,  of  course,  but  I  really  don't  think  any  of 
them  have  minded  it  as  much  as  he  has  ;  he  does  love  the 
farm." 

"  I  like  to  see  him  work  in  the  garden,"  said  Muriel ;  "  he 
is  so  good  and  strong,  and  the  tools  all  seem  to  go  exactly 
where  he  means  them  to.  Now,  when  I  try  to  hoe,  I  am 
always  surprising  myself  by  seeing  where  the  hoe  comes 
down." 

"  You've  not  had  quite  as  much  practice  as  he  has.  He's 
been  at  it  ever  since  he  could  run  alone.  I  can  see  him 
now,  trotting  about  after  his  father,  all  over  the  farm,  and 
trying  to  do  every  thing  he  saw  the  men  do.  But  come,  my 
dear,  it's  quite  true  that  you  ought  to  have  plenty  of  sleep 
to-night,  and  if  you're  going  to  read  Miss  Post  her  chapter, 
it's  high  time  you  were  going." 

"  I  am  so  glad  to  find  that  Maidie  can  read  aloud  re- 
spectably," said  Muriel,  as  she  obediently  rose  to  follow 
Aunt  Sally.  "  Miss  Post  does  not  mind  her  Scotch  accent 
at  all ;  she  says  it  is  pretty.  And  the  child  seems  delighted 


228  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

to  have  the  opportunity.  I'm  so  very  glad  you  knew  about 
her  and  told  me,  aunty.  I  hope  '  Lizzy '  will  not  put  any 
mischief  into  her  head." 

"  They'll  not  need  to  be  together  at  all,  except  when  Miss 
Post  is  by,"  said  Aunt  Sally,  over  her  shoulder,  "  so  I 
wouldn't  do  any  trouble-borrowing  there,  child." 

"  Do  you  know  of  any  place  where  you  would  do  it, 
dear?"  asked  Muriel;  and  Aunt  Sally  replied  with  her 
usual  candor : 

"  Well,  no  ;  I  can't  say  that  I  do." 

This  cheery  declaration,  and  the  unexpected  help  which 
Dick  had  brought,  sent  Muriel  to  bed  in  good  spirits,  but 
she  did  not  feel  quite  so  sanguine  the  next  morning,  and 
had  a  cowardly  wish  that  Aunt  Sally  would  offer  to  go  with 
her.  in  the  afternoon.  But  this  the  old  lady  refrained  from 
doing,  because  she  thought  Muriel  would  get  on  much  more 
rapidly  and  successfully  with  her '  mob '  if  she  were  left  wholly 
to  herself  ;  which  was  perfectly  true.  What  Muriel  chiefly 
lacked  was  confidence  in  her  own  powers  and  resources,  and 
this  lack  was  wholly  owing  to  her  education  and  surround- 
ings, for  the  part  of  a  girl's  education  which  is  obtained  at 
school  is  a  very  small  thing,  compared  with  that  which  is 
imbibed  unconsciously  at  home.  The  strongest  and  healthi- 
est plant  will  be  bleached  and  distorted  if  it  be  grown  in 
a  cellar,  in  a  place  too  small  for  it,  and  only  the  exceptionally 
strong  and  healthy  ones  can  ever  outgrow  the  effects  of  the 
process,  though  brought,  after  the  mischief  is  done,  into 
fullest  sunshine  and  widest  space. 

Aunt  Sally  watched,  with  ever  deepening  interest,  the 
effect  of  moral  sunshine  and  fresh  air  upon  her  new  "  niece," 
anxiously  careful  lest  she  should  in  any  way  hinder  the  pro- 
cesses of  growth  and  expansion  ;  and  she  soon  found  that 
she  must  steel  her  heart  and  practice  a  little  seeming  cruelty 
to  be  truly  kind.  Muriel  wondered  more  and  more,  as  her 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  229 

little  appeals,  such  as  "  Which  way  would  you  do  it,  Aunt 
Sally?"  "Do  you  think  I  had  better  undertake  "  this  or 
that,  were  met  with  advice  to  "  Think  it  out  and  decide  for 
yourself,  dear  ;  "  for  she  had  not  failed,  in  being  thrown  so 
much  with  the  Raymonds  and  their  cousins,  to  hear  a  good 
many  laughing  and  teasing  allusions  to  Aunt  Sally's  entire 
readiness  to  give  advice,  when  she  "  saw  her  way  clear." 

"  And  you  know  you  always  do  see  your  way  clear,  aunty, 
and  that's  what  makes  you  so  merciless  to  people  who 
don't,"  Marion  happened  to  say  one  day.  To  which  Aunt 
Sally  had  replied  :  "  I  hope  I'm  not  merciless  to  any  body. 
I'm  sure  I've  no  right  to  be  ;  but  I  will  say  that  I  like  to 
see  people  who  know  just  what  they  mean  to  do,  and  then 
go  ahead  and  do  it  without  loss  of  time." 

She  had  been  trying  to  think  of  something  which  should 
entirely  divert  Muriel's  mind  from  the  ordeal  before  her, 
knowing  that  nothing  would  b'e  gained  by  a  wearying  round 
of  the  same  thoughts  and  speculations  ;  but  it  was  difficult 
to  find  any  thing  sufficiently  interesting  to  compete  success- 
fully with  the  mob,  and  she  was  really  glad  when,  rather 
early  in  the  morning  for  calling  hours,  Julia  Hardcastle  was 
announced.  A  queer,  contradictory  sort  of  liking  was  grow- 
ing up  between  Aunt  Sally  and  Julia,  its  outward  manifes- 
tation being  generally  a  tilt  of  words  between  them  when- 
ever they  met.  Julia  announced  at  home  that  Miss  Bowne 
was  "delicious,"  while  the  latter's  dictum  concerning  Julia 
was  :  "  She's  too  sensible  for  a  fool,  but  she's  'most  foolish 
enough  for  one,  sometimes." 

Aunt  Sally  happened  to  be  alone  in  the  library  when  Julia 
was  shown  in,  and  her  greeting  was  unusually  cordial,  for 
the  reason  above  stated,  a  phenomenon  which  did  not  escape 
Julia's  observation. 

"  I  came  very  near  calling  you  Aunt  Sally,  Miss  Bowne," 
she  said.  "  You  haven't  appeared  to  disapprove  of  me  so 


230  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

little  since  I  had  the  pleasure  of  making  your  acquaintance  ; 
but  I  hope  I  know  my  place  too  well  too  presume  upon 
what  must  6e  only  an  accident,  or,  worse  still,  a  delusion." 

"  If  you  do  know  your  place,"  said  Aunt  Sally,  ignoring 
the  rest  of  the  speech,  "/would  like  to  know  why  you  don't 
go  to  work  and  fill  it." 

"  Do  you  know,  Miss  Bowne,  that  same  question  has  often 
puzzled  me,"  replied  Julia,  and  just  then  Muriel  entered, 
and  Julia's  attention  was  turned  to  her. 

Muriel  had  not  intended  mentioning  the  mob  to  Julia, 
until  she  began  to  see  her  way  a  little  more  clearly,  but  her 
mind  and  heart  were  much  too  full  of  the  subject  not  to  run 
over  at  a  touch,  and  almost  before  she  knew  it  she  was  tell- 
ing the  whole  story,  and  hoping  that  Julia's  quickness  might 
hit  upon  some  better  plan  than  had  yet  been  discovered. 
It  was,  in  reality,  Julia's  genuine  interest  which  had  drawn 
her  on,  after  the  first  unguarded  sentence,  which  could  easily 
have  been  passed  over  had  she  been  talking  to  some  one 
who  was  politely  indifferent.  Miss  Hardcastle  began  by 
being  very  much  amused,  then,  as  Muriel  described  the  mob, 
and  more  especially  the  champion,  and  told  how,  to  do  any 
thing  at  all  with  them,  suspicion  and  prejudice  must  first  be 
overcome,  and  a  belief  established  among  them  that  their 
entertainers  meant  nothing  but  kindness,  she  grew  inter- 
ested ;  it  would  be  like  playing  a  difficult  and  exciting  game. 
She  had  a  curiosity,  too,  to  see  how  Muriel  would  stand  such 
a  trial  of  courage  and  resource  as  this  would  undoubtedly 
be.  And  besides,  and  above  all  this,  she  had  a  very  honest 
desire  to  "  lend  a  helping  hand." 

She  was  quite  silent  for  a  moment  or  two,  when  Muriel 
paused  rather  than  stopped,  for  the  subject  was  by  no 
means  exhausted  and  presently  she  said  : 

"  You're  the  funniest  combination  of  heroism  and  cow- 
ardice, Muriel,  that  it  has  ever  been  my  luck  to  meet  with  ! 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  231 

I  could  no  more  have  thought  of  and  started  such  an  under- 
taking as  this  promises  to  be  than  I  could  have  flown  to 
the  moon,  but  yet,  if  by  any  miracle,  I  had  started  it,  I 
shouldn't  be  a  bit  afraid  of  the  whole  of  them,  nor  have  the 
slightest  desire  to  back  out !  " 

"  I  know  you  wouldn't,"  said  Muriel,  wistfully,  "  and  I 
suppose  it  was  just  this  knowledge  which  led  me  on  to  talk 
to  you  about  it,  as  if  your  courage  might  perchance  be 
catching.  I  only  wish  it  were,  for  I  am  dreadfully  tempted 
to  run  away." 

"  It  isn't  courage,"  said  Julia,  "  it's  a  variety  of  things.  I 
can't  explain,  for  I  do  not  more  than  half  understand  it 
myself,  but  I  am  very  certain  that  courage  has  nothing  to 
do  with  it.  I  wish  you  were  more  easily  amused,  Muriel. 
I  really  don't  think  there  are  more  than  three  things  in  the 
world  which  are  altogether  serious — two,  I  might  say,  per- 
haps, with  safety." 

"  I  don't  see  what  that  has  to  do  with  my  courage," 
replied  Muriel. 

"  It  would  have  a  great  deal  !  A  good  laugh  is  a  great 
power  for  scattering  fears  and  apprehensions  ;  isn't  it,  Aunt 
Bowne  ?" 

Aunt  Sally's  lips  twitched,  but  she  answered  serenely : 

"  Yes,  it  is,  and  I'm  always  glad  to  hear  people  laugh 
when  it  isn't  at  the  expense  of  something  that  is  worth  even 
more.  But  there's  an  old  proverb  that  says,  '  too  much  of 
any  thing  is  good  for  nothing.'  " 

"  That  remark  will  not  condemn  you  to  the  obnoxious 
title  of  partisan,  Miss  Bowne.  I  don  t  quite  know  whether 
you  agree  with  me  or  not.  Muriel,  I  wish  you'd  let  me  go 
with  you  this  afternoon,  or  rather  meet  you  there,  and  '  lend 
a  helping  hand '  with  the  girls.  I've  had  a  small  class  of 
ragamuffinesses  at  the  sewing-school  since  Lent  began,  and 
I'm  quite  surprised  to  find  how  well  I  get  on  with  them. 


232  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

And  I'll  not  interfere  with  any  thing  you  may  have  ar- 
ranged. My  position  shall  be  very  meek  and  subordinate. 
May  I  come  ?  " 

Muriel  was  genuinely  surprised,  not  only  by  the  request, 
which  was  totally  unexpected  by  her,  but  by  the  pleasure 
and  alacrity  with  which  she  found  herself  accepting  Julia's 
offer.  And  Aunt  Sally  hid  her  disappointment  that  Muriel 
was,  after  all,  not  to  be  left  to  her  own  devices,  and  tried  to 
believe  firmly  that  it  was  "  all  for  the  best."  Julia  took  her 
leave  soon  after  the  hour  for  the  appointment  had  been  set, 
renewing  her  promise  to  act  strictly  under  orderss  and  con- 
gratulating herself  that  she  had  happened  in  that  morning. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

THE     NEXT     STEP. 

"  The  lions  were  chained." 

— "Pilgrim's  Progress" 

DICK  arrived  punctually,  just  as  Muriel  was  beginning 
to  be  afraid  that  something  had  detained  him,  and 
laughed  at  her  anxious  face. 

"  The  boys  have  gone  on,"  he  said.  "  I  gave  them  the  key, 
'  as  per  agreement,'  and  they'll  open  the  windows  as  soon 
as  they  get  there.  I  couldn't  catch  any  body  to  sweep  it 
this  morning  ;  the  boy  I  meant  to  ask  was  not  at  home,  so 
I  just  borrowed  a  broom  of  your  friend  Miss  Harley  and 
did  it  myself,  and  if  I  do  say  it  as  shouldn't  say  it,  it's  very 
well  done  ;  but  if  I  were  you,  Miss  Muriel,  '  not  presuming 
to  teach,'  you  know,  I'd  have  the  place  thoroughly  cleaned 
before  you  have  the  benches  put  in.  I  had  not  time  to 
attack  the  windows,  except  just  a  brush  to  clear  them  of 
cobwebs,  but  they  look  like  very  dirty  ground  glass  !  And 
the  floor  and  walls  are  dreadful  ;  the  man  who  owns  it 
ought  to  have  it  whitewashed,  but  I  don't  believe  he  will." 

"  I  shall  not  ask  him,"  replied  Muriel,  "  it  will  cost  so 
little,  and  I  do  not  wish  to  strike  him  immediately  as  a 
troublesome  tenant.  It  was  very  good  of  you  to  sweep  it 
out,  Dick.  I  don't  know  how  to  thank  you.  And  I'm  sorry 
we  could  not  get  the  benches  in  time  for  to-day  ;  you'll  all 
be  so  tired,  I'm  afraid." 

"I  think  we  can  stand  it,' literally,  for  an  hour,"  said 
Dick,  cheerfully,  "  and  if  we  find  we  can't,  the  window-sills 


234  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

are  wide  enough  to  perch  on,  and  we  can  take  turns  at  them." 

Muriel  was  tempted  to  suggest  to  Dick,  as  he  stopped  to 
wait  for  a  car,  that  they  might  as  well  walk  all  the  way,  but 
she  said  to  herself,  sternly  :  "  Don't  be  an  idiot ! "  and 
stepped  briskly  into  the  car,  determined  not  to  let  Dick  see 
how  she  was  quaking. 

He  did  see,  however,  and  exerted  himself  to  talk  cheer- 
fully and  to  make  her  laugh,  and  when  they  reached  the 
corner  where  they  had  agreed  to  part,  he  said  : 

"  You're  sure  you'd  rather  meet  your  mob  alone,  Miss 
Muriel  ?  For  if  you  wouldn't,  I'll  either  stand  by  you,  or 
prowl  along  the  other  side  of  the  street,  while  you  make 
your  arrangement  known,  whichever  you  like.  I  think, 
perhaps,  that  would  be  better." 

"  No,"  said  Muriel,  with  a  grateful  look,  "  I'm  not  really 
afraid,  it's  only  a  little  stage-fright,  and  I  am  not  going  to 
give  way  to  it !  You  are  as  kind  as  you  can  be,  Dick,  but 
I  am  afraid,  if  my  mob  were  to  see  you  with  me,  or  suspect 
that  you  were  watching  them,  they  would  all  flee  different 
ways.  '  Go  on,  I'll  follow  thee.'  " 

He  went  on,  more  reluctantly  than  she  knew,  and  joined 
the  others,  who  were  waiting,  with  amused  expectancy,  for 
Muriel  and  her  cortege  to  arrive.  But  when  fifteen  minutes 
passed  and  they  did  not  come  he  grew  uneasy,  and  in  a  few 
minutes  more  was  just  starting  out  to  ascertain  the  cause  of 
the  delay,  when  the  sound  of  voices  and  a  shrill  laugh 
approaching  made  him  wait,  and  presently  the  procession 
appeared,  headed  by  Muriel  and  her  champion,  who  had  an 
absurd  air  of  importance  and  patronage.  They  seemed  to 
be  coming  willingly  enough,  but  this  was  partly  accounted 
for  by  the  fact  that  Muriel  had  taken  the  precaution  to  leave 
the  packages  containing  the  refreshments  in  Julia's  hands. 

As  soon  as  the  crowd — which  this  time  contained  about 
thirty — was  fairly  in  the  room,  Muriel  tried  to  make  herself 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  235 

heard,  but  quite  in  vain,  until  the  champion,  suddenly  com- 
prehending the  state  of  affairs,  shouted  out : 

"  The  lady's  tryin'  to  speak,  and,  if  you  haven't  the 
manners  to  hold  your  noise,  I'll  try  what  me  fists'll  do  for 
you  !  " 

There  was  an  immediate  silence,  and  Muriel,  judging  it 
best  to  take  advantage  of  it  rather  than  administer  a  reproof 
for  this  entirely  well-meant  announcement,  said  quickly  : 

"  You  shall  have  the  cakes  first,  and  then  there  will  be 
some  music,  and  then  I  have  something  to  tell  you  and 
something  useful  to  give  you,  and  then  you  shall  have  the 
candy,  and  after  that  you  can  go  home." 

It  was  certainly  to  the  credit  of  Muriel's  aids  that  no 
audible  laughter  followed  this  speech,  which  was  fired  at 
her  audience  as  if  she  mistrusted  their  power  to  keep  still 
a  moment  longer.  They  saw  nothing  funny  about  it,  fortu- 
nately, but  the  champion  cried,  shrilly  : 

"  Three  cheers  for  the  lady  !  Hoo-roar  !  "  and  a  deafen- 
ing response  immediately  filled  the  room.  The  explosion 
seemed  to  do  them  good,  for  they  instantly  subsided,  and 
then  the  cakes  were  promptly  produced. 

"  May  I  make  a  remark  or  a  suggestion,  Miss  Muriel  ?  " 
whispered  Dick. 

"  Of  course,  you  may  !  "  she  answered,  and  he  stepped 
forward  a  little,  saying  : 

"  If  any  body  would  like  to  sit  down  on  the  floor  and  eat 
his  or  her  cake,  there's  no  reason  why  you  shouldn't !  " 

The  response  was  an  immediate  flop,  which  shook  the 
building,  and  only  a  few  remained  standing. 

Muriel  was  amazed  to  see  Julia.  While  she  herself  stood 
helpless,  unable  to  think  of  any  thing  to  say,  Julia  went 
brightly  about  among  the  different  groups,  saying  pleasant 
things  to  them,  and  as  much  at  her  ease  as  she  would  have 
been  at  an  afternoon  tea. 


236  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

The  cakes  were  disposed  of  in  an  alarmingly  short  time, 
and  then  the  boys,  at  an  imploring  glance  from  Muriel,  took 
their  places  side  by  side  to  sing,  and  Jim  prefaced  the  song 
with  : 

"We're  going  to  sing  you  a  song  with  a  rousing  good 
chorus,  and  if  anybody  feels  like  joining  in  so  much  the  bet- 
ter !  " 

They  struck  up  "  Marching  Through  Georgia,"  with  all 
the  strength  of  their  voices,  and  the  effect  was  electrical. 
Many  of  the  children  sprang  to  their  feet  ;  heads  and  hands 
and  feet  began  keeping  time,  and  when  the  chorus  to  the 
second  verse  was  reached,  there  was  a  rush  of  voices  which 
nearly  drowned  those  of  the  chief  singers,  and  Julia  whis- 
pered to  Muriel : 

"  How  did  they  catch  it  so  quickly  ?  Look  at  your  knight, 
Muriel  !  " 

He  was  worth  looking  at  !  Vibrating  all  over  in  time  with 
the  music,  his  eyes,  apparently  fixed  on  the  ceiling,  he  was 
singing  at  the  top  of  his  voice,  with  a  look  of  total  absorp- 
tion, which  made  Muriel  say  to  herself  : 

"  Here  is  the  key  to  this  nature,  at  last  !  If  other  things 
fail  I  shall  know  what  to  try ;  his  face  looks  positively  gen- 
tle !  " 

And,  as  if  in  special  mockery  of  her  thought,  at  that  very 
moment  he  made  a  dash  at  a  boy  standing  some  paces 
away  and  knocked  off  his  hat,  and  in  the  momentary  pause 
between  the  verses  the  champion's  shrill  voice  was  heard  to 
say,  in  accents  of  strong  and  righteous  indignation  : 

"  Haven't  you  no  manners  at  all,  you  dirty  little  black- 
guard, to  keep  your  hat  on  your  ugly  head  when  there's 
ladies  around  !  Next  time  I'll  knock  your  head,  I  can  tell 
you,  and  not  just  your  hat." 

Julia's  face  disappeared  behind  her  handkerchief,  and 
there  was  a  tremor  of  suppressed  laughter  in  the  voices  of 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  237 

the  singers,  but  they  went  bravely  on.  When  the  song 
ended  there  was  a  shout  of  applause,  and  a  clamorous  de- 
mand for  "  another." 

"  And  we'll  all  jine  in  if  it  is  as  easy  as  that  one  was  !  " 
said  the  champion,  affably. 

Thus  encouraged  the  singers  struck  up  "  Red,  White 
and  Blue,"  and  the  "  jiningin  "  was  not  long  in  following. 
They  began  to  shout  for  "  another "  as  soon  as  it  was 
finished,  but  a  motion  of  Muriel's  hand,  backed  by  a  much 
more  significant  gesture  from  her  knight,  secured  a  minute 
or  two  of  silence,  in  which  she  said  : 

"  You  have  not  had  the  candy  yet,  you  know,  nor  the  use- 
ful thing  I  am  going  to  give  you  ;  "  and  the  song  was  no 
longer  demanded. 

There  had  been  a  hurried  and  whispered  conference  be- 
tween the  musicians,  and  now,  as  Muriel  stood  near  them, 
opening  her  parcels,  Jim  advanced,  and  said  in  a  low 
voice  : 

"  Miss  Douglas,  we  thought  may  be,  as  the  little  beggars 
seemed  to  like  it  so,  and  are  so  quick  in  catching  a  tune, 
that  you'd  like  us  to  come  next  time,  and  really  try  to  teach 
them  something.  We  can  do  it  quite  well  if  you're  going 
to  hold  the  meeting  on  Saturday.  Shall  we  ?  " 

"  You  are  very,  very  kind,"  said  Muriel,  gratefully, "  and 
I  should  be  only  too  thankful  if  you  would,  but  it  isn't  right 
to  you  to  take  your  time  on  your  one  holiday." 

"  Oh,  an  hour  isn't  much  !  "  he  said,  cheeefully,  "  and  its 
been  great  fun,  so  far  !  The  captain  there  is  worth  several 
songs.  I'm  going  to  scrape  acquaintance  with  him  pre- 
sently. Then  you'll  let  us  come  ?  At  the  same  time  next 
Saturday  ?  Very  well,"  and  he  went  to  speak  to  the  "  cap- 
tain," who  proved  gracious,  and  even  expressed  his  willing- 
ness to  learn  some  more  songs. 

"  I  know  how  to  sing  well  enough,  a'ready,"  he  added, 


238  W 'A  YS  AND  MEANS. 

complacently,  "  but  I  don't  mind  learning  a  few  more  toons, 
I'm  tired  of  the  old  ones,  most  of  'em  !  " 

"  Where  did  you  learn  to  sing  ?  "  asked  Jim,  with  praise- 
worthy gravity. 

"  Oh,  all  about  in  spots  !  Hand-organs,  mostly,  and  con- 
cert-halls, sometimes  ;  outside  seats,  where  you  could  leave 
without  obserwation  if  you  got  tired  durin'  the  puffaw- 
mence  !  " 

And  he  winked  at  Jim  in  a  manner  which  moved  that  ami- 
able youth's  mind  to  envy. 

He  was  all  ready  to  act  as  moderator  of  the  meeting, 
when  Muriel  tried  to  speak  again,  and  by  this  time  she  was 
beginning  to  feel  more  confidence  in  herself,  from  that  which, 
in  spite  of  his  truculence  and  high-handed  methods  of  dis- 
cipline, she  began  to  feel  in  him.  She  had  dreaded  the 
noise  and  turbulence  of  her  mob  more  than  any  thing  else, 
and  expected  to  have  great  difficulty  in  making  herself  heard 
at  all,  and  the  relief  of  this  unexpected  smoothing  of  her 
way  was  proportionate.  She  waited  until  the  candy  was 
distributed,  which  helped  materially  in  the  quieting  process, 
and  then  she  said  : 

"  I  want  you  all  to  come  here  next  Saturday  afternoon 
at  four  o'clock.  I  shall  not  have  any  cake  or  candy  for  you, 
but  I  am  going  to  bring  some  other  things,  which  you  will 
like  to  see,  I  think  ;  these  gentlemen  are  coming  to  sing  for 
you  again,  and  to  teach  you  a  new  song  besides.  And  we 
will  have  benches,  and  tables,  so  that  we  may  have  a  nice 
comfortable  time.  Now,  all  of  you  who  will  come,  with 
perfectly  clean  hands  and  faces,  remember,  and  who  will 
behave  nicely  after  they  come,  can  hold  up  one  of  those  nice 
clean  hands  they  brought  here  to-day  !  " 

Every  hand  went  up  and  a  voice  began  : 

"  Three  cheers — " 

But  Muriel  hastened  to  interrupt  with  : 


W 'A  YS  AND  MEANS.  239 

"  Not  just  yet,  please  !  In  a  few  minutes  you  may,  if  you 
like.  I  saw,  the  last  time  I  met  you,  and  I  see  again  to-day, 
with  much  pleasure,  that  some  of  you  have  combed  your 
hair,  so  I  have  for  each  of  you  a  pretty  little  pocket-comb, 
which  shuts  up  in  a  case,  and  I  hope  before  the  next  time 
we  meet,  each  one  of  you  will  give  his  head  and  her  head  a 
good  combing  and — and — washing,  and  make  yourselves  look 
just  as  neat  and  clean  as  ever  you  can,  and  see  how  pleased 
we  shall  be  !  And  another  thing,  if  we  are  to  be  friends,  as 
I  hope  we  are,  I  would  like  to  know  your  names,  and  to  shake 
hands  with  each  of  you  before  you  go  ;  just  think,  if  I  want 
to  speak  to  any  one  of  you,  I  can't  call  you  any  thing  but 
'  you,'  and  I  don't  like  that — it  isn't  good  manners.  So  now 
please  come  as  you  go  out — I  will  stand  here,  near  the  door — 
and  shake  hands  with  me,  and  tell  me  what  your  names  are." 

There  was  a  silence  for  a  moment — a  silence  which  Muriel 
could  not  fail  to  see  was  suspicious — then  a  low  hum  of  dis- 
cussion, in  the  midst  of  which  Muriel's  "knight"  stepped 
boldly  up  to  her  and  held  out  his  hand,  saying  : 

"  Them  cowards  can  do  as  they  please,  but  when  a  lady 
as  is  a  lady  asks  me  to  shake  hands,  and  tell  her  my  name, 
I  ain't  agoing  to  hang  back,  and  if  they  knowed  what  they'd 
ketch  when  I  get  'em  outside  of  here,  may  be  they  wouldn't 
neither  !  My  name  is  Jake,  and  I  don't  care  who  knows 
it  !  " 

"  But  what  is  your  last  name,  Jake  ? "  said  Muriel,  keep- 
ing the  hard,  bony  little  fist  which  he  had  laid  in  her  hand. 

"  It's  Jake,  ma'am,  same  as  my  first  !  I  give  you  my 
affidavy,  lady,  I  ain't  never  had  but  the  one,  as  I  knows  of  !  " 

"  But  what  is  your  mother's  name,  and  your  father's  ?  " 
she  asked. 

"Ain't  never  had  neither,"  he  answered,  soberly.  "  I'm  a 
young  man  with  a  hist'ry,  I  am  ;  old  Granny  Jake,  which 
picked  rags  for  her  livin',  found  me  in  an  ash-bar'l,  when  I 


240  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

wasn't  any  longer'n  that — "and  he  measured  about  six  inches 
on  his  arm — "  and  kep'  me  to  beg  for  her,  'cos  I  was 
starved-lookin' !  And  since  she  died,  I've  kep'  myself  !  " 

Muriel  asked  no  more  questions,  for  the  effect  of  Jake's 
intimation  as  to  what  the  others  would  "  ketch  "  if  they  per- 
sisted in  "  hanging  back,"  together  with  the  fearless  manner 
in  which  he  announced  his  own  name,  was  almost  immedi- 
ate, and  all,  save  a  few,  who  were  either  stronger  or  fleeter 
of  foot  than  the  champion,  and  so  did  not  fear  him,  filed 
slowly  past,  giving  an  awkward  hand-shake  and  a  mumbled 
name,  as  they  did  so.  At  least  a  third  of  them  had  no  sur- 
name, and  insisted,  upon  being  questioned,  that  they  never 
had,  and  Muriel  was  puzzled  to  decide  whether  this  were  a 
measure  of  caution,  a  literal  fact,  or  an  imitation  of  Jake. 

Dick  and  Julia  had  been  "  primed  "  beforehand,  and  they 
stood,  each  facing  a  window,  taking  down  the  names  as 
they  were  given,  Dick  the  boys,  and  Julia  the  girls  ;  al- 
though to  make  perfectly  sure  which  were  which,  they 
were  obliged  sometimes  to  glance  around. 

It  was  over  at  last ;  the  last  "  perfectly  clean  hand  "  had 
been  laid  in  Muriel's,  and  as  she  turned  from  the  door,  her 
eyes  were  brimming  with  tears. 

"  Oh  !  "  she  exclaimed,  as  soon  as  she  could  trust  herself 
to  speak,  "  I  had  not  had  a  good  look  at  their  faces  before, 
and  it  seems  as  if  they  must  come  from  some  dreadful  un- 
der-world, which  we  pretend  does  not  exist." 

"  You  must  not  take  it  so  hard,  dear,"  said  Julia,  speak- 
ing far  more  lightly  than  she  felt,  because  she  saw  Muriel's 
over-wrought  condition.  "  I  know  just  what  you  are  doing  ; 
you  are  fancying  howjv«  would  feel  if  you  were  suddenly 
obliged  to  wear  rags,  and  sleep  in  ash-barrels,  and  live  in  a 
society  where  polite  conversation  included  swearing,  but  you 
must  remember  the  vast  difference  it  makes,  never  to  have 
known  any  thing  better." 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  241 

"  Yes,  that  would  make  a  difference  ;  I  see  that  it  would ; 
a  very  great  difference,  though  the  degradation  and  misery 
are  the  same  in  the  abstract,  but  I  am  glad  you  thought  of 
that,  Julia  ;  it  is  some  little  consolation.  And  yet,  it  will 
make  it  all  the  harder  to  dig  them  out,  I  am  afraid  !  " 

"  Now  don't  spoil  your  little  consolation,  the  minute  you 
begin  to  play  with  it ;  instead,  listen  to  these  most  extraor- 
dinary names  !  '' 

And  she  read  her  list  aloud. 

"  It  beats  mine,"  said  Dick,  "  and  do  you  know,  Miss 
Muriel,  I've  an  idea  that  a  good  many  of  those  imps  made 
up  their  names  on  the  spur  of  the  moment,  and  are  chuck- 
ling now,  to  think  how  cleverly  they've  done  us  !  " 

"  It's  more  than  likely  !  "  assented  Muriel,  resignedly; 
"  but  I  don't  think  my  champion  did.  I  wish  he  had  not 
such  an  ugly  name,  for  fierce  and  dreadful  as  he  is,  he 
somehow  interests  me  more  than  all  the  rest  put  together. 
I  suppose  because  he  is  the  only  one  of  them  who  seems  at 
all  interested  in  me  !  But  was  it  not  pretty,  Mr.  Armitage," 
she  said,  turning  to  Charley,  "  to  see  them  respond  to  the 
music  ?  I  shall  no  longer  think  the  monkey  is  the  sole  at- 
traction, when  I  see  them  following  a  hand-organ." 

"  I  came  upon  an  open-air  ball  the  other  day,"  he  replied  ; 
"  about  a  dozen  of  the  raggedest  little  wretches  imaginable, 
gathered  about  a  man  who  was  playing  on  a  most  villainous 
organ,  but  it  was  wheezing  out  the  '  Fisher's  Hornpipe,'  and 
I  wish  you  could  have  seen  the  dancing  !  That  was  just 
before  Dick  spoke  of  your  enterprise,  and  lamented  his 
cracked  voice  in  such  touching  terms,  and  I  will  confess  that 
my  recollection  of  the  scene  influenced  me  to  volunteer.  I 
had  an  idea  that  there  would  be  a  good  deal  of  fun,  and 
there  has  been  !  But  I  will  also  confess,  that  when  that 
infant  with  the  big,  innocent  blue  eyes,  and  pinched,  white 
little  face,  swore  like  a  Turk  because  her  neighbor  '  scrouged ' 


242  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

her,  the  performance  lost  a  good  deal  of  its  charm  for  me, 
as  an  abstraction — though  it  gained  in  interest." 

Muriel  would  not  put  her  thought  into  words,  but  she 
felt  very  sure  that  it  was  after  this  light-hearted  boy  heard 
the  blue-eyed  baby  swear,  that  he  had  arranged  with  his 
comrades  to  come  again  the  following  week,  and  this  was 
indeed  the  case.  His  life,  guarded  by  intelligent  training 
and  inherited  character,  had  been  a  very  clean  one,  and  he 
had  seen  but  very  little  of  the  "dreadful  under-world"  of 
which  Muriel  spoke  ;  never  enough  to  arouse  either  interest 
or  more  than  a  very  transient  compassion  ;  but  in  thinking 
over  afterward  the  events  and  impressions  of  this  after- 
noon, it  seemed  to  him  that  he  could  never  regain  the  care- 
less and  indifferent  regard  of  all  phases  of  life,  save  that  in 
which  he  moved,  which  contact  with  these  poor  little  waifs 
and  strays  had  destroyed.  And,  rather  to  his  own  surprise, 
he  did  not  wish  to.  The  effect  upon  Jim  Burnham  was  far 
less  strongly  marked,  but  he  was  good-naturedly  willing  to 
do  whatever  might  be  asked  of  him  in  the  cause,  chiefly 
because  he  liked  Muriel  and  thought  he  should  like  Julia, 
and  had  a  very  sincere  friendship  with  both  Dick  and 
Charley. 

They  were  turning  to  leave  the  room,  when  Muriel  said, 
suddenly  : 

"  I'm  afraid  this  place  will  be  very  damp,  if  we  should 
happen  to  be  here  on  a  rainy  day.  I  wish  I  could  have 
found  a  room  with  some  sort  of  fire-place  in  it.  I  wonder 
if  it  would  be  possible  to  cut  a  stove-pipe  hole  in  one  of  the 
outside  walls,  or  put  a  tin  pane  with  a  hole  in  it  in  a  window. 
I  saw  that,  the  other  day,  in  a  house  somewhere  near  here." 

"  Yes,  it  would  be  quite  possible,"  said  Dick,  "  but  I  don't 
believe  the  owners  would  let  you  do  it.  Mr.  Duncan  says 
the  upper  part  is  full  of  stored  furniture,  and  such  things. 
And  yet,  if  you  keep  on  coming  all  the  year,  there  will  have 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  243 

to  be  some  way  of  warming  it.  Would  you  like  me  to  see 
the  owners,  and  ask,  Miss  Muriel  ?  I  could  get  the  address 
from  Mr.  Duncan,  you  know." 

"  If  you  can  do  that,  I  will  not  let  you  take  any  further 
trouble  about  it.  I  will  go  speak  to  the  owners  myself," 
replied  Muriel,  and  Dick  did  not  remonstrate  with  her,  for 
he  thought  it  probable  that  she  would  succeed  much  better 
than  he  would,  were  any  concession  to  be  asked. 

They  all  five  walked  together  to  the  corner  which  the  car 
passed,  the  boys  intending  to  walk  home  when  they  had 
seen  Muriel  and  Julia  safely  in  the  car,  but  as  they  stood 
waiting,  Muriel  said  : 

"  I  wish  you  would  all  come  and  have  dinner  with  me,  or 
tea  with  Aunt  Sally,  and  then  we  can  have  a  little  more  talk 
about  my  mob — that  is,  if  you  are  not  entirely  exhausted, 
both  with  your  labors,  and  with  the  subject !  " 

"  I  am  not,  either,"  replied  Julia,  seeing  that  the  boys 
were  waiting  for  her  to  speak  first.  "  And  I  will  do  so,  with 
much  pleasure,  if  you  will  send  Rogers  home  with  me  a 
little  before  ten.  That  is  the  witching  hour  at  which  mam- 
ma begins  to  think  that  '  something  must  have  happened,' 
if  I  do  not  appear  or  send  a  representative." 

"  I'd  like  nothing  better,  Miss  Douglas,"  said  Charley, 
as  frankly  as  she  had  herself  spoken,  "  but  my  mother  would 
wait  dinner  for  me,  I'm  afraid,  for  the  girls,  my  sisters,  are 
not  at  home  just  now,  and  father  is  so  irregular  in  his  be- 
havior concerning  dinner  that  he  simply  takes  it  when  he 
arrives  upon  the  scene,  and  doesn't  like  us  to  wait  for 
him." 

"  I'm  afraid  my  circumstances  are  equally  adverse,  if  not 
exactly  the  same,  Miss  Douglas,"  said  Jim,  regretfully, 
"  only — might  I  ask  at  what  time  the  mysterious  double- 
headed  repast  to  which  you  alluded  takes  place  ? " 

"  It  will  not  take  place  until  seven  o'clock  this  evening," 


244  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

said  Muriel,  smiling,  "for  I  did  not  know  how  late  the  '  ex- 
ercises '  would  keep  me,  and  Aunt  Sally  firmly  declined  to 
sit  down  to  a  solitary  meal,  so  I  fixed  seven." 

"  Then,  if  I  may  be  permitted,  I  shall  have  time  to  go 
home  and  allay  my  mother's  apprehensions,  in  which  case  I 
shall  be  delighted  to  accept." 

"  And  could  you  not  do  that,  too  ? "  asked  Muriel,  turning 
to  Charley. 

"  I  certainly  could,"  he  replied,  "but  I  had  not  the  auda- 
city to  propose  it.  We  modest,  retiring  people  lose  a  great 
deal,  I  am  beginning  to  find." 

"  You  would  have  deserved  to  lose,  in  this  case,"  said 
Muriel,  laughing.  "  You'll  come,  Dick  ? " 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  Dick.  "  I  was  only  waiting  my  turn  to 
speak,  and  to  tell  Miss  Hardcastle  that  I  hope  she  will  ac- 
cept me  as  a  substitute  for  the  venerable  Rogers  ;  but  I 
must  go  home  first,  too,  and  tell  the  girls,  or  they  II  wait. 
You  will  not  take  advantage  of  my  absence  to  engage 
Rogers,  Miss  Hardcastle  ?  " 

"  Have  no  apprehension  of  that  sort,"  replied  Julia,  in 
her  pleasantest  manner ;  "  Rogers  is  saved  for  this 
evening." 

"  What  a  very  agreeable  thing  an  agreeable  boy  is,"  she 
said  to  Muriel,  after  they  were  seated  in  the  car  and  the 
boys  had  left  them  ;  4<  and  how  friendly  and  unaffected 
those  two  young  fellows  are.  I  hope  they  will  not  consider 
it  necessary  to  put  on  any  airs  as  they  grow  older.  That's 
the  worst  of  every  thing,  Muriel — nothing  stays  as  it  is,  and 
if  we  don't  realize  that  a  change  is  going  on,  that  makes  it 
all  the  worse  when  we  do." 

"  It  isn't  always  the  worst  of  every  thing,  by  any  means," 
replied  Muriel ;  "  just  think  how  hopeless  some  lives — most 
lives — would  be,  if  we  had  not  the  certainty  of  change  to 
look  forward  to." 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  245 

"  Yes,  of  course  ;  there  are  two  sides  to  every  thing,  but 
I  wish  one  might  have  a  little  voice  .in  the  matter,  and  at 
least  avert  the  change  until  it  is  desired." 

She  spoke  with  a  gravity  almost  amounting  to  sadness, 
for  which  Muriel  could  not  account,  and  perhaps  this  feeling 
was  indicated  in  the  latter's  face,  for  Julia  changed  the  sub- 
ject rather  abruptly  and  returned  to  her  every-day  manner. 

They  reached  Muriel's  home  by  a  little  after  six,  and  she 
went  at  once  to  acquaint  Rogers  with  the  state  of  affairs. 
He  was  much  too  well-behaved  to  express  to  her  the  con- 
sternation which  he  felt  when  he  heard  that  four  unexpected 
people  were  coming  to  dinner  in  little  more  than  half  an 
hour,  three  of  whom  were  "young  gentlemen,"  but  he  re- 
marked solemnly  to  Margery,  as  soon  as  Muriel  was  out  of 
hearing  :  "  I  could  wish  that  Miss  Muriel  would  not  be  quite 
so  unconsiderate  and  previous.  I  am  that  flustered — and 
the  table  to  be  unset,  and  a  leaf  put  in,  and  dessert  to  be 
purchased,  and  after-dinner  coffee  to  be  served." 

"  And  don't  you  see  that  it's  a  compliment  the  young 
mistress  is  paying  you  and  the  cook  ? "  said  the  good-tem- 
pered Irish  housemaid  ;  "and  sure  a  pair  of  fine  chickens 
is  dinner  enough  for  twice  four  ;  and  I'll  see  to  the  table  for 
you,  and  run  out  for  some  dessert  as  soon  as  they're  seated 
if  you'll  ask  Miss  Muriel  what  it  shall  be.  It's  the  great 
mercy  that  we've  a  good  confectioner  so  near  hand." 

Rogers  was  consoled,  and  the  dinner  was  all  any  body 
could  have  asked,  and  only  fifteen  minutes  late.  Muriel 
had  already,  brief  as  had  been  her  reign,  shown  a  kindness 
of  feeling  toward  her  servants  which  had  won  their  hearts, 
and  they  served  her  with  a  willingness  which,  without  her 
knowledge,  saved  her  much  of  the  friction  which  attends 
most  lives. 

Aunt  Sally  was  genuinely  pleased  when  Muriel  brought 
Julia  in,  and  said  that  Dick  and  his  two  friends  were  coming 


246  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

presently.  It  was  not  only  because  the  best-beloved  of  her 
"  children  "  was  one  of  the  party,  although  that  greatly 
added  to  her  pleasure  ;  but  she  was  thoroughly  glad  to  see 
Muriel  emerging  from  the  reticence,  almost  amounting  to 
shyness,  which  had  seemed  a  few  weeks  ago  part  of  her 
nature,  but  which,  as  Aunt  Sally  was  now  beginning  to  per- 
ceive, had  merely  overlaid  it. 

The  dinner  was  a  most  cheerful  meal,  and  lasted  a  good 
deal  more  than  long  enough  for  the  cook  to  make  the  coffee, 
about  which  Rogers  had  been  concerned.  Aunt  Sally's 
questions  about  the  afternoon's  experience  were  numerous, 
and  her  heart  went  out  in  an  especial  manner  to  Charley 
Armitage,  as  she  discovered  from  little  signs  and  tokens, 
quite  unconsciously  given  by  him,  how  deeply  his  feelings 
had  been  touched.  She  expressed  her  entire  approval  of 
Muriel's  intention  to  go  to  the  owner  or  agent  of  the  ware- 
house, and  see  what  could  be  done  about  some  arrangement 
for  fire.  The  day  had  been  one  of  the  suddenly-warm  ones 
which  so  often  come  in  late  spring,  but  it  would  not  be  safe 
to  trust  to  the  chance  of  always  happening  on  warm  days. 
There  was  a  great  deal  of  talk  as  to  what  should  be  put 
into  the  room,  and  Aunt  Sally  vetoed  so  many  of  Muriel's 
proposals  that  the  latter  declared  she  had  never  been  so 
snubbed  in  her  life. 

"  My  dear,"  said  Aunt  Sally,  earnestly,  "  don't  you  be  one 
of  the  crowd  of  people  who  are  trying  to  run  before  they 
can  walk.  Make  the  room  thoroughly  comfortable.  You're 
quite  right  about  having  backs  to  the  benches  and  some 
sort  of  carpet  on  the  floor,  and  you'll  give  most  of  those 
poor  little  souls  a  treat  every  time  they  come  there  ;  but 
they'll  be  the  very  first  to  detect,  and  to  take  advantage  of, 
any  foolishness,  and  you  must  be  very  careful,  for  a  while, 
at  any  rate,  and  do  nothing  rash." 

"  Will  it  be  rash  to  hang  some  pictures  on  those  staring 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS,  247 

walls,  and  some  simple  curtains  over  the  staring  windows  ?  " 
asked  Muriel,  meekly. 

"  You  know  well  enough  that  I  don't  think  it  will,"  said 
Aunt  Sally,  severely  ;  "  but  when  you  talk  of  buying  a  kin- 
dergarten outfit  before  your  next  meeting,  it's  high  time  to 
stop  you." 

"  But,  aunty,  the  little  children  must  have  something  to 
do,  as  well  as  the  big  ones.  I  can't  teach  a  little  tot  of 
three  years  old  how  to  sew." 

"  Then  you  can  take  some  colored  picture-books  for  them 
to  look  at,  and  I'll  make  you  a  big  rag  doll  before  you  go 
again,  and  sew  some  scarlet  braid  into  '  lines  '  for  them  to 
play  horse  with.  It'll  never  do  for  you  to  try  to  keep  them 
too  still,  especially  just  at  the  first.  And  I  wouldn't  let 
them  stay  more  than  an  hour,  either,  any  of  them  ;  they'll 
be  twice  as  ready  to  come  back  if  they  go  before  they're 
tired.  The  way  that  little  monkey  who  calls  himself  Jake 
suspected  you  of  '  tracks  '  and  Sunday-school  designs  is  a 
hint  as  to  the  tactless  way  in  which  so  many  good  people  go 
about  their  good  works,  that  you'll  do  well  to  remember." 

"  I  wish  you'd  tell  that  to  the  temperance  agents,  Miss 
Bowne,"  said  Charley  Armitage.  "  They  invite  a  lot  of 
poor  wretches,  who  haven't  any  home  worth  the  name,  to 
sit  in  a  cold  hall  and  be  preached  to  for  an  hour  or  more, 
and  then  let  them  go  home,  if  they  succeed  in  catching  any, 
without  giving  them  a  thing  to  eat  or  drink,  while  right 
across  the  street,  perhaps,  is  a  saloon  throwing  glimpses  of 
magnificence  through  the  doors  and  windows,  looking 
warm,  and  bright,  and  cheerful,  and  in  the  front  window,  a 
picture  of  an  abnormally  large  oyster  with  the  legend:  '  A 
fried  oyster  with  every  drink  ! ' ' 

"  I  know,"  said  Aunt  Sally,  "  I've  seen  that  picture  of  the 
oyster  and  the  legend  a  number  of  times,  and  I  never 
knew  of  but  one  temperance-lecturer  who  had  sense  enough 


248  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

to  make  use  of  that  idea,  and  he  wasn't  what's  generally 
called  a  lecturer  either.  He  was  a  little  lame  man  who 
kept  a  coffee-stand,  he  and  his  wife  together.  He  was  gen- 
erally called  '  The  Ready  Reckoner,'  because,  whenever  he 
could  catch  any  body  who  drank,  he'd  reckon  up  what  their 
'  moderate  drinking  '  cost  them  in  the  course  of  a  year.  He 
sold  his  things  just  as  cheap  as  he  could,  to  make  a  living 
for  his  wife  and  himself,  and  he  had  all  sorts  of  queer  signs 
stuck  up  all  over  his  stand,  such  as 'A  fried  oyster  with 
every  drink  of  coffee!'  'A  knock -you-down-and-carry- 
you-out  cup  of  tea  for  five  cents  ! '  I  can't  remember  the 
half  of  them — it  was  a  good  many  years  ago,  when  the 
'  temperance  agitation,'  as  they  called  it,  was  first  beginning. 
But  he  really  shut  up  two  or  three  of  the  worst  saloons  in 
the  neighborhood  just  by  destroying  their  custom,  and  the 
good  he  did'll  never  be  known  in  this  world." 

"  What  has  gone  with  him,  aunty  ?  "  asked  Muriel,  deeply 
interested,  for  here  were  suggestions  about  which  she  meant 
to  ask  more,  at  a  suitable  time. 

"  He's  gone  to  Heaven,  my  dear,  years  ago,  and  his  wife 
too,  and  after  he  died,  it  didn't  appear  to  occur  to  any  body 
to  take  up  his  work  and  carry  it  on.  I  only  wish  it  had.  And 
I  wish  all  the  reformers  would  do  more  to  amuse  the  people 
they're  trying  to  reform  ;  it's  half  the  battle,  it  seems  to  me." 

"  Why  don't  you  write  an  '  open  letter '  to  some  of  the 
papers  or  magazines  about  it,  Miss  Bowne  ? "  inquired 
Charley. 

She  looked  at  him  sharply  for  a  moment,  but  she  saw 
that  the  question  had  been  asked  in  entirely  good  faith. 

"  I  couldn't  do  it,"  she  said,  simply  ;  "  all  my  ideas  would 
fly  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  the  moment  I  tried  !  But  I'm 
always  hoping  that  some  body  who  can  write  will  do  it  for 
me,  and  if  it's  somebody  who  has  hold  of  the  public's  ear 
already,  so  much  the  better." 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS,  249 

Julia  had  never  seemed  to  Muriel,  and  to  Aunt  Sally  as 
well,  so  likeable,  and  even  lovable,  as  she  seemed  this  even- 
ing, and  they  were  both  sorry  when  she  rose  to  go.  Her 
interest  in  Muriel's  project,  and  her  liking  for  the  boys, 
were  evidently  sincere,  and  Muriel  only  wished  that  the  side 
of  her  character  which  was  now  uppermost  might  be  allowed 
to  remain  so. 

Dick's  friends  went  when  he  did,  and  there  was  an  evi- 
dent sincerity  in  their  parting  words  about  their  enjoyment 
of  the  evening  and  their  intention  to  call  "  very  soon,"  which 
pleased  Muriel  much. 

She  drew  a  hassock  to  Aunt  Sally's  feet,  after  her  visitors 
were  gone,  and  laid  her  head  on  the  old  lady's  knee,  saying  : 

"  The  lions  are  chained  again,  aunty.  I  wonder  if  they 
always  are  ? " 

"  If  they  aren't,"  was  Aunt  Sally's  somewhat  enigmatical 
answer,  "  they  don't  unchain  themselves,  that's  certain." 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

DISCOURAGEMENT. 

"Bravely  the  ships  in  the  tempest  tossed, 
Buffet  the  waves  till  the  sra  be  crossed  ; 
Not  in  despair  of  the  haven  fair, 
Though  winds  blow  backward,  and  leagues  be*  lost. 

— F.  W.  BOURDILLON. 

IT  must  not  be  supposed  that  Mr.  Douglas  Keith  had  al- 
lowed Muriel's  promise  to  permit  him,  at  some  time  in 
the  near  future  to  call  upon  her,  to  remain  unclaimed. 
She  had  met  him  in  the  street,  soon  after  Aunt  Sally's  install- 
ment, and  he  had  managed  skillfully  so  to  arrange  the  conver- 
sation that  before  they  parted  he  had  received  the  coveted 
invitation,  and  he  did  not  permit  much  time  to  elapse  before 
he  availed  himself  of  it.  He  had  nothing  to  say  now  about 
her  business  affairs  ;  she  had,  without  intending  to,  made 
it  very  manifest  that  she  preferred  to  hold  the  needful  in- 
terviews with  the  senior  partner,  and  with  these  arrange- 
ments he  had  sufficient  tact  not  to  interfere,  especially  as, 
under  existing  circumstances,  he  preferred  not  to  talk  to 
Muriel  about  her  money.  He  could  not  understand  the 
motives  which  were  prompting  her,  and  consequently  he 
set  down  the  actions  which  seemed  to  him  so  singular  to 
the  score  of  whims,  and  waited  patiently  for  the  "  attack  of 
charity,"  as  he  termed  it,  to  wear  itself  out. 

He  had  made  up  his  mind  when  his  father  called  upon 
him  for  help  in  settling  the  estate,  and  before  he  had  seen 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  251 

Muriel  at  all,  that,  unless  he  found  her  positively  repellant, 
he  would  fall  in  love  with  her,  and,  after  an  engagement  as 
short  as  she  could  be  induced  to  make  it,  marry  her.  He 
had  never  yet  allowed  himself  to  fall  in  love  with  any  one, 
for  he  had  been  well  aware  that,  unless  he  could  discover  a 
charmer  who  possessed  the  solid  charm  of  a  fortune,  mar- 
riage would  mean,  for  him,  an  amount  of  economy  and  self- 
denial  which  he  by  no  means  felt  inclined  to  practice.  He 
had  a  small  inheritance  from  his  mother,  the  interest  of 
which,  with  his  share  in  the  business,  gave  him  an  income 
upon  which  he  managed  to  dress  faultlessly  and  move  in  the 
best  society,  to  smoke  the  best  cigars,  to  drink,  in  very  small 
quantity,  the  best  wine,  and  to  go  every  summer  for  three  or 
four  weeks  to  the  gayest  and  most  fashionable  resorts.  But 
he  was  laying  nothing  by,  he  was  obliged  to  do  without  a 
great  many  things  which  he  would  have  liked  to  have,  and 
the  impression  grew  upon  him  that  something  must  be  done. 
He  was  much  too  cautious  to  resort  to  speculating  or  stock- 
gambling  ;  indeed,  it  was  a  fixed  rule  with  him  to  do  nothing 
in  secret  which  he  would  be  ashamed  to  let  all  the  world 
know,  and  he  had  too  much  genuine  good  feeling  and  affec- 
tion for  his  father  to  count  upon  his  death.  His  older 
brother,  with  a  much  better  head  for  business  than  he  him- 
self possessed,  was  making  money  in  various  perfectly  legit- 
imate and  respectable  "  outside  "  ways,  which  enabled  him 
to  lay  by  nearly  all  the  income  which  he  received  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  firm,  but  he  "  gave  the  whole  of  his  mind  to  it," 
caring  nothing  for  general  society  and  living  very  simply 
and  economically. 

It  was  quite  certain  that  Muriel  would  never  be  consid- 
ered, or  consider  herself,  a  beauty,  but  her  face  pleased  most 
people,  and  sometimes  under  the  influence  of  pleasant  ex- 
citement was  very  pretty.  Her  figure  was  good  ;  she  car- 
ried herself  well,  and  was  too  free  from  self-consciousness 


252  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

ever  to  be  awkward,  and  Mr.  Keith  was  most  agreeably  im- 
pressed during  the  business  interview  which  began  their 
acquaintance.  This  impression  deepened,  as  he  meant  that 
it  should,  every  time  he  met  her,  in  spite  of  his  disapproval 
of  the  new  turn  of  affairs  given  by  her  charitable  schemes. 
He  regretted  very  much  that  she  was  not  going  into  general 
society,  which  he  relied  upon  to  change  a  good  many  of 
her  views  as  to  the  best  manner  of  spending  her  money,  but 
he  consoled  himself  with  the  reflection  that  her  seclusion 
need  not  be  of  very  long  duration  ;  then,  when  she  should 
emerge,  with  the  worldly  advantages  she  possessed,  it  was 
scarcely  possible  that  her  zeal  should  last. 

He  confided  his  ideas  to  no  one,  but  set  quietly  to  work 
to  win,  first  of  all,  the  position  of  a  friend  of  the  house,  who 
should  be  welcome  whenever  he  should  choose  to  come 
there,  and,  perhaps,  had  Muriel  been  in  charge  of  a  nomi- 
nal chaperone,  instead  of  a  friend  so  real,  and  so  wide 
awake  to  her  best  interests,  as  Aunt  Sally  was,  he  might  not 
have  found  this  position  very  difficult  to  win,  but  as  it  was, 
he  did  not  seem  to  himself  to  make  much  progress.  Muriel 
was  more  than  merely  civil  ;  she  was  pleasant  and  friendly, 
for  he  always  amused  her,  and  managed,  besides,  without 
becoming  fulsome,  to  let  her  see  his  admiration  for,  and  in- 
terest in  her.  The  most  difficult  part  of  his  self-assigned 
role  was  that  of  listening,  with  an  appearance  of  interest  and 
approval,  when  she  talked  of  the  rebuilding  of  the  row  of 
houses  recently  purchased,  or  of  kindred  schemes,  while  in 
reality,  he  considered  his  father  culpably  remiss  in  not  re- 
straining her  from  every  thing  of  the  kind.  And  almost  as 
difficult  was  the  work  of  keeping  on  even  outwardly  friendly 
terms  with  Aunt  Sally.  She  had  an  apparently  innocent 
way  of  showing  up  the  weak  spots  in  his  conversation,  which 
kept  him  painfully  on  the  alert,  for  there  was  nothing  which 
so  annoyed  him  as  a  suspicion,  however  remote,  that  he  was 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  253 

being  laughed  at.  And  he  wondered  very  much,  but  had 
no  way  of  solving  the  problem,  whether  it  were  by  accident 
or  design  that  Miss  Bowne  was  always  "  about "  when  he 
called  on  Miss  Douglas  ! 

Another  cause  of  uneasiness  to  him  was  the  frequency 
with  which  he  began  to  meet  Neil  Duncan  at  the  house,  and 
the  very  evident  favor  with  which  Aunt  Sally  regarded  him. 
About  Muriel's  views  he  was  uncertain  ;  her  quiet,  almost 
indifferent  manner  to  Mr.  Duncan  might  be  assumed  for 
the  benefit  of  a  discerning  public.  And  Mr.  Duncan,  he 
observed,  either  really  was,  or  managed  to  seem  to  be, 
thoroughly  posted  on  the  subjects  which,  for  the  present, 
occupied  so  large  a  share  of  Miss  Douglas's  thoughts. 
Meanwhile  Muriel,  happily  unconscious  of  the  various 
speculations  and  comments  of  which  she  was  the  object, 
became  daily  more  engrossed  with  the  work  which  seemed 
to  unfold  itself  before  her.  She  succeeded  in  working  Aunt 
Sally  up  to  the  pitch  of  going  with  her  to  investigate  the 
place  of  which  Miss  Prudence  Harley  had  told  her,  and, 
although  the  time  of  year  was  not  very  favorable  to  the  some- 
what rugged  aspect  of  the  country,  she  was  so  delighted 
with  it  that  she  declared  her  intention  of  founding  a  sum- 
mer colony  there,  apart  from  the  one  which  she  hoped  to 
found  for  the  benefit  of  the  dwellers  in  the  row.  The  small 
houses  of  which  Miss  Harley  had  spoken  were  in  somewhat 
better  condition  than  her  description  had  led  Muriel  to 
expect,  and  the  agent,  who  had  had  no  offer  for  them  for 
years,  was  quite  willing  to  make  them  habitable  for  the  sum- 
mer, if  he  could  be  assured  of  renting  them  for  four  months. 
Aunt  Sally  and  Muriel  visited  every  one,  planning  and  sug- 
gesting as  they  went  from  one  to  another,  until  by  the  time 
they  had  made  the  round,  they  had  "  located  "  every  family 
which  could  be  expected  to  come,  and  settled  in  the  largest 
house  fragments  of  three  or  four  of  the  families  which  had 


254  W 'A  YS  AND  MEANS. 

members  whose  business  engagements  compelled  them  to 
spend  the  summer  in  town. 

There  was  not  even  a  country  tavern  in  the  place,  and 
none  of  the  boarding-houses  were  yet  open,  so  Miss  Harley 
had  insisted  upon  giving  them  a  letter  of  introduction  to 
"Jane,"  who  seemed  delighted  to  see  them,  and  entertained 
them  most  hospitably,  urging  them  to  stay  all  night,  and 
"  look  about  a  little  more  "  the  next  day.  Muriel  was  greatly 
tempted  to  do  this  ;  the  free  air  of  the  hills  seemed  to  her 
so  thoroughly  delightful  after  her  long  imprisonment,  but 
she  saw  that  Aunt  Sally  would  prefer  to  return  the  same 
day,  so  the  invitation  was  gratefully  declined.  It  seemed  to 
Muriel  that  she  could  hardly  wait  till  the  next  day,  when 
they  reached  home  that  evening,  so  eager  was  she  to  spread 
her  plan  before  her  tenants,  and  witness  their  pleasure  at 
the  idea  of  four  months  in  the  country.  It  was  already  late 
in  April,  and  the  row  ought  to  be  vacated  by  the  middle  of 
'May,  at  the  latest,  so  there  was  really  no  time  to  be  lost,  and 
Muriel  went  on  her  mission  early  the  next  morning  smiling 
and  confident.  Aunt  Sally  was  a  prey  to  dark  forebodings, 
as  she  saw  Muriel  set  forth  in  this  frame  of  mind,  but  said 
nothing,  except  to  herself,  and  to  this  trusty  confidant  she 
whispered  : 

"  There's  no  use  in  throwing  cold  water  on  her  before- 
hand, poor  little  soul  !  How  sweet  and  bright  she  looks. 
I'm  afraid  she'll  be  singing  another  song  when  she  comes 
back." 

She  was.  With  one  exception  only,  her  plan  had  met 
either  with  mere  toleration  or  downright  opposition.  All 
the  tenants,  when  they  were  once  made  to  understand  the 
advantages  which  the  rebuilding  of  the  row  would  give 
them,  and,  with  much  more  difficulty,  that  on  their  return 
the  rent  was  not  to  be  "  raised  on  "  them,  had  been  quite 
willing  to  leave  the  houses  for  the  time  required,  and  had 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  255 

graciously  consented  not  to  fix  upon  their  temporary  homes 
without  first  consulting  either  Miss  Harley  or  Muriel  her- 
self. It  was  one  of  Aunt  Sally's  suggestions  that  Miss 
Harley  might  be  appointed  as  a  sort  of  agent  to  report  to 
Muriel  any  thing  which  the  tenants  wished  reported,  or  any 
of  her  own  observations  which  would  help  in  the  "  adminis- 
tration of  justice."  Miss  Harley  was  a  clear-headed  woman 
of  business,  and .  had  told  Muriel  frankly  what  she  would 
consider  a  fair  compensation  for  doing  this,  which,  she  said, 
would  not  take  so  much  of  her  business-time  as  it  would  in 
the  cases  of  many  other  people,  because  her  shop  was  so 
much  resorted  to  by  the  dwellers  in  the  row,  and  they  were 
so  in  the  way  of  coming  to  talk  to  her  about  their  affairs. 
The  sum  she  named  had  been  so  small  that  Muriel  had 
tried  to  insist  upon  doubling  it ;  this  Miss  Harley  had 
gratefully  but  very  firmly  declined,  and  Muriel,  seeing  that 
it  would  be  useless  to  urge  it,  desisted. 

Muriel  could  have  chosen  no  one  for  this  unique  situa- 
tion who  would  have  filled  it  so  satisfactorily  as  Miss 
Harley  did.  She  seemed  to  know  by  instinct  exactly 
what  was  and  what  was  not  worth  repeating,  and  any 
information  which  she  was  not  able  to  give  Muriel  off- 
hand she  appeared  to  have  no  difficulty  in  obtaining  for 
her.  She  had  not  considered  it  within  her  promise  to 
repeat  the  various  expressions  of  dissatisfaction  at  the 
trouble  of  finding  temporary  quarters,  and  of  moving 
twice  within  so  short  a  time,  which  she  had  heard,  and 
she  had  exerted  all  her  influence  to  awaken  gratitude, 
and  failing  that,  reasonableness,  among  the  people  ;  but 
her  success  had  only  been  very  partial.  Most  of  them  were 
of  opinion  that  the  houses  were  good  enough  as  they  were, 
or  that,  at  any  rate,  all  they  needed  was  a  little  repairing. 
One  of  them  had  mentioned  her  views  on  the  subject 
directly  to  Muriel,  who,  thinking  some  of  the  others  might 


256  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

feel  the  same,  had  caused  the  houses  to  be  thoroughly  in- 
spected by  a  builder.  His  verdict  was,  that  they  had  been 
badly  built  in  the  first  place,  that  one  or  two  would  soon  be, 
if  they  were  not  now,  positively  unsafe,  and  that  none  of 
them  were  worth  repairing,  and  she  told  Miss  Harley  to  cir- 
culate this  statement  freely,  and  Miss  Harley  did  it,  and 
about  three  people  in  the  row  believed  it !  But  Muriel  had 
fancied  that  whatever  reluctance  about  leaving  their  homes 
might  be  felt  by  these  people  was  due  to  the  belief  expressed 
by  Mrs.  Boyce,  that  it  would  be  almost  or  quite  impossible 
to  find  homes  in  so  decent  a  neighborhood  for  the  amount 
of  rent  they  were  paying  there,  and  it  seemed  to  her  that 
most  of  them,  and  especially  those  who  had  children,  would 
be  rejoiced  with  the  opportunity  to  spend  a  whole  summer 
in  the  country.  She  went  first  to  Mrs.  Boyce  and  unfolded 
the  plan  to  her,  but  without  mentioning  her  intention  regard- 
ing Lizzy  and  Robert.  Mrs.  Boyce's  tired  eyes  sparkled 
with  animation  as  Muriel  described  the  country  and  the 
vacant  houses  at  from  one  to  two  dollars  per  month,  and  the 
cheapness  of  so  many  articles  of  food.  But  the  light  died 
out  as  she  said,  shortly  and  ungraciously  : 

"  You  mean  to  be  kind,  I  believe  that ;  but  even  if  I 
could  find  plenty  of  work  there,  as  you  seem  to  think  I  could, 
Lizzy  and  Robert  must  not  lose  their  situations.  If  any 
body  I  know  should  go,  though,  I  would  like  to  send  Fred- 
erick there  to  board  for  a  few  weeks,  if  I  can  manage  it ; 
he  is  quite  able  to  do  light  work  in  part  payment  for  his 
board." 

"  I  have  a  plan,"  said  Muriel,  hesitatingly,  and  feeling 
strangely  embarrassed,  "  if  you  will  not  think  I  am  imperti- 
nent ;  indeed  I  do  not  mean  to  be.  A  friend  of  mine,  who 
is  nearly  blind,  and  will  soon  be  quite,  is  staying  with  me, 
and  will  be  at  my  house  all  summer  ;  I  expect  to  be  away 
from  home  a  good  deal,  and  Miss  Post — that  is  my  friend's 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  257 

name — will  miss  me,  I  am  afraid,  for  although  she  has  a 
very  nice  little  maid  to  wait  upon  her,  I  am  in  the  habit  of 
reading  to  her  for  awhile  every  evening,  and  of  course  she 
would  miss  that.  My  house  is  far  larger  than  is  necessary 
just  for  my  aunt  and  myself,  and  I  thought,  perhaps,  you 
would  be  willing  to  let  Lizzy  come  to  me  as  soon  as  you 
could  be  ready  to  go  to  Hartswell,  and  Robert  too,  for  there 
is  a  little  garden  which  I  wish  kept  nice  through  the  sum- 
mer, and  he  could  easily  do  all  that  is  to  be  done  in  it  in  the 
evenings,  and  perhaps  sometimes  in  the  early  morning. 
There  are  two  small  rooms  near  those  occupied  by  Miss  Post 
which  are  never  used,  and  though  the  house  is  on  the  out- 
skirts of  the  city,  I  think  they  could  manage  the  distance." 

"  And  do  you  mean,"  asked  Mrs.  Boyce,  looking  keenly 
at  Muriel,  "that  you  would  consider  that  what  they  could 
do  outside  of  their  business  hours  would  pay  for  their  board 
and  lodging,  or  only  the  lodging?"  • 

"  I  mean  both  of  course,"  said  Muriel,  speaking  much 
more  at  her  ease  now  that  she  had  made  her  proposal. 
"  You  see,"  she  added,  in  her  most  business-like  manner,  a 
manner  which  she  was  sedulously  cultivating  and  of  which 
she  was  already  rather  proud,  "  where  five  people  are  to  be 
provided  for,  the  board  of  two  more  will  be  a  very  slight 
additional  expense  !  "  This  was  a  sudden  inspiration  from 
a  recollection  of  something  she  had  heard  Miss  Harley  say, 
and  she  could  see  that  it  took  instant  effect. 

"  That's  true,"  said  Mrs.  Boyce  ;  "  but  still  it  seems  very 
little  for  any  body  to  do  for  their  board  and  lodging,  very 
little  !  " 

"  That  depends  upon  how  you  look  at  it,"  said  Muriel, 
smiling.  "Lizzy  and  Robert  may  think  it  a  great  deal  to 
give  up  their  evenings  as  well  as  their  days,  and  of  course 
you  can  not  give  me  an  answer  until  you  have  spoken  to 
them,  so  I  will  not  detain  you  any  longer  now." 


258  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

"  I  can,  and  I  will,"  she  said,  with  sudden  decision. 
"  My  children  have  never  yet  openly  disobeyed  me,  and 
whatever  they  may  think,  they  shall  do  as  I  say.  If  you 
will  let  me  take  the  smallest  and  cheapest  of  those  houses, 
one  of  those  which  rent  for  a  dollar  a  month,  I  will  do  it, 
and  whatever  may  be  your  real  motive  for  making  this  offer 
to  my  children,  I  thank  you." 

Muriel  dared  not  remonstrate,  or  suggest  that  coercion 
was  not  the  best  form  of  government.  The  woman's  som- 
ber manner  made  her  thoroughly  uncomfortable,  and  she 
was  glad  to  escape  into  the  open  air  ;  but  first  she  asked 
that  Lizzy  and  Robert  might  be  sent  to  see  her,  either  that 
evening  or  the  next,  and  Mrs.  Boyce  promised  that  they 
should. 

She  was  glad  even  of  this  grim  and  reluctant  consent, 
and  consoled  herself  with  thinking  how  different  would  be 
the  reception  of  her  proposal  by  the  other  families  ;  and  it 
was  different,  but  difference  does  not  always  imply  improve- 
ment. At  the  next  house,  a  widow  with  two  little  children 
worked  in  a  laundry,  and  took  lodgers  in  two  rooms  which 
she  managed  to  spare  from  the  three  which  the  house  con- 
tained— for  having  no  back  buildings,  none  of  the  houses 
contained  more — and  as  she  was  a  good  workwoman,  she 
made  a  comfortable  living,  and  was  able  to  pay  the  small 
fee  demanded  at  the  day-nursery  where  she  always  left  her 
children.  She  admitted  that  she  had  meant  to  dismiss  her 
lodgers  and  re-nt  a  single  room  during  the  time  occupied  by 
the  rebuilding  of  the  row  ;  that  she  would  have  no  difficulty 
about  being  "  taken  on  "  again  at  the  laundry,  upon  her  re- 
turn, and  that,  if  she  could  get  two  or  three  washes,  or 
day's  work,  every  week,  at  Hartswell,  it  would  "  about 
make  it  square  ;  "  but  she  did  not  think  she  would  like  the 
country  ;  it  must  be  very  lonesome  ;  the  children  were  well 
enough  where  they  were  ;  they  would  miss  the  day-nursery, 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  259 

where  they 'were  learning  nice  ways  and  their  letters.  And 
it  would  cost  more  than  it  would  come  to,  to  send  furniture 
away  off  there,  just  for  three  or  four  months. 

Muriel  was  ready  for  this  emergency. 

"  I  expect  to  send  up  what  furniture  will  be  really  needed 
for  each  house,"  she  said,  ''and  I  shall  charge  nothing  for 
the  use  of  it,  as  I  am  obliged  to  ask  you  to  leave  your 
homes  at  some  inconvenience  to  yourselves  ;  but  I  have  no 
interest  to  serve  in  urging  you  to  take  one  of  these  houses 
— they  do  not  belong  to  me — and  as,  from  what  you  say,  I 
infer  that  you  have  a  room  in'  view,  we  will  say  no  more 
about  it." 

"  You  don't  need  to  be  so  hasty,  Miss  Douglas,"  said  the 
woman,  as  Muriel  opened  the  door,  utterly  discouraged.  "  I 
haven't  any  room  engaged,  and  if  it's  all  as  you  say  about 
them  houses,  and  no  charge  for  the  furniture,  and  work  to 
be  had  in  the  near  neighborhood,  I  don't  care  if  I  go.  I 
dare  say  it  will  be  good  for  the  children,  after  all." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Muriel,  trying  to  keep  down  the  pro- 
voked feeling  which  rose  at  the  condescending  words  and 
manner.  "  Do  you  wish  one  of  the  larger  or  smaller  houses  ? 
The  largest  are  only  two  dollars  a  month." 

"Then  I'll  take  one  of  them,"  she  replied,  quite  gra- 
ciously. "  Four  rooms,  I  think  you  said  ?  It  may  come  in 
my  way  to  take  a  few  lodgers  or  boarders." 

The  interviews  varied,  of  course,  in  some  particulars,  but 
the  spirit  was  the  same,  almost  without  an  exception,  and 
Muriel  resisted  the  temptation  to  finish  her  campaign  by 
going  to  Miss  Harley  for  sympathy,  fearing  she  should  say 
something  to  be  repented  of  concerning  her  tenants." 

"  Why,  you  poor  child,  you're  all  tired  out,"  said  Aunt 
Sally,  as  Muriel  came  into  the  library,  and  dropped  wearily 
into  a  chair.  "  Did  you  walk  all  the  way  home  ?  What  in 
the  world  have  you  been  doing  to  yourself?" 


260  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

"  I've  been  having  it  done  to  me,  dear,"  replied  Muriel, 
"and  I  don't  feel  as  if  I  should  ever  smile  again." 

And  she  proceeded  to  give  Aunt  Sally  the  minute  account 
of  her  adventures  which  was  always  looked  for  and  listened 
to  with  such  keen  interest  now  ;  and  before  she  had  finished 
they  were  both  not  only  smiling,  but  laughing,  for  some- 
how, as  Muriel  told  of  her  various  receptions,  she  began  to 
see  the  ludicrous  side  of  the  affair,  and  by  the  time  she  had 
finished  she  was  quite  ready  for  the  consolation  which  she 
knew  would  be  forthcoming,  and  for  the  cup  of  tea  which 
Margery  quietly  brought  in. 

"  Oh,  how  nice  !  "  exclaimed  Muriel,  gratefully.  "  How 
did  you  know  I  was  tired  to  death,  you  best  of  good  wo- 
men? " 

"  And  what  need  is  there  for  you  to  tire  yourself  to  death 
I  would  like  to  know,  Miss  Muriel  ? "  asked  Margery,  sternly, 
as  with  gentle  hands  she  removed  Muriel's  bonnet  and 
wrap,  and  placed  a  footstool  under  her  feet.  "  A  body 
might  think  you  worked  for  your  living,  to  see  the  way  you 
come  home  of  late." 

But  she  did  not  say  how  a  chance  word  from  Rogers 
about  his  young  lady's  pale,  tired  face,  when  he  opened  the 
door,  had  sent  her  in  with  the  welcome  cup  of  tea — and  the 
scolding. 

"  My  dear,"  said  Aunt  Sally,  when  Margery  had  departed 
with  the  empty  cup,  "  I  don't  wonder  you  should  feel  a 
little  put  about  with  having  your  kind  intention  toward 
those  poor  souls  so  ill  received  ;  but  so  far  as  I  can  make 
out,  only  those  who  were  really  tied  by  their  work,  which 
they  dared  not  lose,  refused  to  go  to  Hartswell,  and  you've 
gained  over  the  one  you  were  most  concerned  about,  Mrs. 
Boyce,  and  that's  a  double  gain,  for  the  more  I  think  of 
what  it  will  be  to  have  that  light-headed  little  girl  come 
under  Miss  Post's  care  and  influence,  the  better  I'm  pleased 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  261 

with  the  whole  arrangement.  And  after  all,  there  are  two 
sides  to  the  question,  as  there  always  are,  if  we  would  only 
believe  it,  and  these  people  can't  be  altogether  blamed  for 
hanging  back  a  little  from  what  must  seem  such  a  great  un- 
dertaking to  them.  Just  think  ;  I  suppose  at  least  half  of 
them  have  never  been  an  hour's  journey  outside  the  city, 
and  they  don't  know  whether  they'll  like  it  or  not.  And 
they  certainly  showed  a  good  deal  of  faith  in  you  in  con- 
senting to  go  at  all." 

"  Yes,  they  did  ;  I  see  that  they  did,"  said  Muriel,  in 
such  cheerful  tones  that  Aunt  Sally  saw  she  need  not  con- 
tinue her  exordium,  nor  add  the  lecture.  "  And  I  do  believe 
that  some  of  them  are  really  glad  of  the  chance  of  a  few 
months  in  the  country,  only  they're  quite  above  saying  so. 
It  was  funny  to  see  how  afraid  they  were  of  expressing  any 
pleasure,  much  less  gratitude." 

"  They're  not  alone  in  that,"  said  Aunt  Sally.  "  I've 
wondered  more  than  a  little,  and  many  a  time,  at  the  calm 
way  in  which  people  take  favors — as  if  they'd  say  '  thank 
you,'  because  it  was  good  manners  to  say  it,  but  that,  if 
you  did  but  know  it,  they  were  only  getting  their  due. 
And  that's  what  we've  got  to  learn,  or  part  of  the  what ;  to 
keep  right  ahead,  and  do  the  right  thing,  whether  we're 
thanked,  or  ignored,  or  blamed,  and  to  do  our  own  share  of 
thanking  whether  other  people  do  theirs  or  not." 

"  That  is  one  thing  about  Miss  Post,"  said  Muriel.  "  I 
don't  think  I  ever  saw  any  one  so  sweetly,  beautifully  grate- 
ful for  every  thing  that  is  done  for  her,  and  even  for  a  good 
intention,  as  she  is.  It  always  seems  a  surprise,  as  well  as 
a  pleasure,  to  her.  Do  you  notice  how  Maidie  adores  her 
already,  and  is  jealous  and  almost  sulky  if  Margery  dares 
to  wait  on  her  ?  " 

"  Yes,  I've  seen  that  several  times.  That  little  girl 
won't  be  a  half  way  friend  to  any  body.  She's  a  queer, 


262  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

fierce  little  soul  under  her  quiet,  prim  manner.  But  she  can 
hardly  fail  to  catch,  some  of  Miss  Post's  gentleness." 

"  I  wish  I  might  catch  a  little  !  I  was  so  provoked  at  those 
people  this  afternoon  that  I  felt  like  saying  :  '  Do  you  think 
it  matters  to  me  what  becomes  of  you  ?  Just  go  wherever 
you  please  ! '  How  surprised  they  would  have  been  if  I'd 
said  it  !  " 

And  Muriel  laughed  at  the  vision  conjured  up  by  her 
words,  as  she  jumped  up  lightly  and  went  up  stairs  with  her 
bonnet  and  wrap.  But  when  she  was  alone,  the  subject  of 
one  of  her  discussions  with  May  came  up  again.  Did  she 
really  feel  more  encouraged  about  her  tenants,  as  she 
thought  over  her  talk  with  them,  or  had  the  pleasant  room, 
and  comfortable  chair  and  timely  cup  of  tea  been  the  true 
causes  of  her  modified  view  ?  It  was  very  puzzling  ;  hope- 
lessly so  ;  so  instead  of  wasting  any  more  thought  upon  it 
she  turned  her  mind  to  the  arrangement  of  the  room  in  the 
warehouse.  The  days  flew  by  so  ;  here  was  Wednesday, 
already,  and  if  she  did  not  set  to  work  at  once  Saturday 
would  catch  her  unprepared.  And  she  would  have  some 
pictures  on  those  bare,  ugly  walls,  even  though  Aunt  Sally 
should  scold  her  for  extravagance  !  And  she  must  not  fail 
to  go  to-morrow  and  see  if  she  could  make  any  arrangement 
for  a  possible  fire. 

She  went  rather  late  in  the  afternoon  by  Aunt  Sally's  ad- 
vice, for  the  man  who  received  the  rent  for  the  warehouse 
was  a  "  wholesale  dealer  "  down  town,  and  would  probably 
be  too  busy  to  attend  to  her  in  the  morning.  He  seemed 
almost  too  busy  as  it  was,  but  he  listened  patiently,  and 
seemed  really  sorry  to  be  obliged  to  tell  her  that  he  feared 
the  risk  would  be  too  great  ;  that  the  owner  of  the  ware- 
house used  the  upper  part  for  the  storage  of  furniture,  of 
which  he  was  a  manufacturer,  and  that  his  loss  would  be 
heavy  should  a  fire  occur.  They  could  have  rented  the 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  263 

lower  room  long  before,  he  added,  if  they  could  have  con- 
sented to  having  a  fire  in  it, 

That  gave  Muriel  an  idea. 

"  Then  there  is  a  fireplace  ? "  she  half-asked,  half-asserted. 

"  Yes,"  said  the  man,  and  then  looked  vexed  with  him- 
self for  having  made  the  admission,  but  having  made  it,  he 
went  on  to  explain  : 

"  You  see,"  he  said,  "  that  place  was  once  a  dwelling- 
house,  a  good  many  years  ago,  but  when  the  neighborhood 
began  to  be  taken  for  shops  and  warehouses,  it  would  not 
rent  for  any  thing  worth  while.  Mr.  Sellers  was  not  willing 
to  turn  it  into  a  tenement-house,  and  the  rooms  were  too 
large  if  he  had  been,  so  he  began  to  store  there  the  furni- 
ture that  was  crowding  his  manufactory,  and  now  he  keeps 
the  upper  part  full  pretty  much  all  the  time.  He  don't  put 
any  thing  in  the  lower  room,  both  because  he's  afraid  of 
dampness,  and  because  it's  been  broken  into  once  or  twice. 
He  had  that  down  stair's  chimney-place  boarded  up  and 
whitewashed  over,  so  that  it  wouldn't  show.  If  it  had  been 
me  I'd  have  had  it  bricked  up  solid  !  " 

Muriel  did  not  say  so,  but  she  thought : 

"  I  am  very  glad  it  was  not  '  me  ! ' ' 

"  I  will  not  detain  you  any  longer,  "  she  said.  "  Good- 
afternoon." 

"  Good-afternoon,  miss,  and  I'm  sorry  we  can't  accommo- 
date you,  "  he  said,  evidently  both  surprised  and  relieved  that 
she  made  no  attempt  to  take  advantage  of  his  incautious 
admission  that  there  was  a  fireplace. 

"  His  name  is  Sellers  and  he  is  a  furniture-dealer,"  she 
said  to  herself,  as  she  walked  briskly  away  from  the  scene 
of  her  apparent  defeat.  "  I  am  afraid  he  will  wish  he  had 
bricked  it  up,  but  I'm  so  very  glad  he  didn't  !  " 

She  stopped  at  the  first  drug-store  to  which  she  came, 
and  consulted  a  directory,  finding  the  address  without  any 


264  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

difficulty,  and  having  "made  a  note  of  it,"  she  went  home 
much  better  satisfied  than  she  had  expected  to  be. 

Aunt  Sally  had  gone  to  take  tea  with  her  children,  who 
were  giving  what  Dick  insisted  upon  calling  "a  fandango," 
to  a  little  bride  who  was  a  friend  of  theirs. 

"  It's  so  very  mild,  Miss  Muriel,  only  the  Craigs  and  the 
Osbornes,  besides  the  happy  pair,"  he  had  pleaded,  when  he 
brought  the  invitation  ;  "  don't  you  think  you  might 
come  ? " 

But  Muriel,  mindful  of  her  resolution  not  to  give  needless 
offense,  regretfully  declined,  and  wrote  for  May  and  Miss 
Forsythe  to  come  and  dine  with  her. 

May  came  alone. 

"  I  did  not  know  whether  you  would  want  me,  without 
aunty,"  she  said,  "  but  when  I  said  that  aunty  made  a  little 
remark  about  '  the  pride  that  apes  humility,'  which  sent  me 
for  my  hat  at  once !  How  glad  I  am  to  see  you  again. 
How  well  you're  looking  !  Give  me  another  kiss  ?" 

They  had  not  met  for  two  weeks,  through  no  fault  on 
either  side,  and  Muriel  was  quite  as  glad  of  the  meeting  as 
May  was,  although  she  really  felt  disappointed  that  Miss 
Forsythe  had  not  come  too. 

"  Aunty  fully  expected  to  come,"  pursued  May,  "  but  just 
at  the  last  minute,  literally,  a  young  girl  in  whom  she  is  in- 
terested came  in,  and  we  found  she  was  thinking  of  going 
this  evening  to  one  of  those  hateful  variety-theaters,  with  a 
party  of  men  and  young  girls  from  the  store.  She's  a  nice 
warm  hearted  little  thing,  and  has  done  so  many  pleasant 
things  for  aunty,  but  she  has  about  as  much  head  as  a  bon- 
net-pin, and  her  home  is  very  dull  and  dreary.  So  aunty 
did  what  is  polite  for  winking  at  me,  and  I  didn't  dare  not  to 
mind,  so  I  hurried  on  my  things  and  said  good-by,  and  just 
as  I  left,  aunty  was  saying  :  '  Now  you'll  take  off  your 
hat  and  stay  and  have  tea  with  me,  Lizzy,  and  I  will  walk 


WA  Y5  AND  MEANS. 

as  far  as  the  car  with  you,  when  it's  time  for  you  to  go 
home  ! '  And  it  will  please  me  to  know  what  they'll  find 
to  eat,  for  when  we're  going  out  to  dinner,  we  act  ac- 
cordin'  !  However,  aunty  is  quite  capable  of  cooking  break- 
fast for  tea,  and  buying  another  breakfast  as  she  comes 
home  from  putting  Lizzy  in  the  car." 

"  Then  you  think  the  girl  staid  ?  " 

"  I  don't  doubt  it !  She  is  very  fond  of  Aunt  Agnes,  and 
whoever  has  the  last  word  with  her  has  the  influence  as  a 
general  thing.  And  she  is  so  pretty  I  could  just  sit  and 
look  at  her  !  " 

"  And  her  name  is  Lizzy,  you  said  ?  What  is  her  last 
name?  " 

"  Boyce.     Why,  do  you  know  her  ?  " 

"  I  have  met  her  once ;  she  called  on  me,"  said  Muriel 
smiling.  "  If  you  hadn't  dodged  me  with  a  persistency 
worthy  of  a  better  cause,  lately,  I  should  have  told  you  all 
about  it." 

"  And  you  couldn't  tell  me  now,  I  suppose  ?  " 

So  Muriel  told  and  May  listened  with  eager  interest  and 
sympathy,  for  she  had  not  heard  the  result  of  Muriel's  effort 
to  put  some  of  her  tenants  in  country  homes  for  the  summer, 
although  she  had  heard  all  about  the  homes,  and  had  begun 
to  talk,  at  first  jestingly,  and  then  in  sober  earnest,  of  per- 
suading her  aunt  to  take  the  best  of  the  "  huts  "  and  go 
into  camp  for  the  two  weeks'  holiday,  which  was  all  that 
Miss  Forsythe  was  allowed.  She  was  delighted  when  she 
heard  of  Mrs.  Boyce's  consent  to  take  one  of  the  houses, 
and  of  the  arrangement  which  was  to  be  made  for  Lizzy  and 
Robert. 

"  The  way  is  opening,  isn't  it  dear  ?"  she  said.  "  Its  curious 
how  one  part  fits  on  to  another  like  a  Chinese  puzzle,  or 
like  that  story  of  which  I  used  to  be  so  fond  in  the  days  of 
my  very  early  youth,  where  the  pig  wouldn't  go  over  the 


266  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

bridge,  and  all  the  hard  hearted  creatures  and  things  refused 
to  help.  Do  you  remember  ? " 

"  I  never  so  much  as  heard  it." 

"  You  poor  child  !  You  shall,  then,  even  at  this  late 
day,  hear  the  happy  conclusion.  The  old  woman  who 
owned  the  pig  had  simply  told  all  these  creatures  and  things 
to  help  her,  but  when  the  last  one  refused,  being  a 
mouse,  she  offered  an  inducement — a  piece  of  cheese,  and 
at  once  '  The  mouse  began  to  gnaw  the  rope,  and  the  rope 
began  to  hang  the  butcher,  and  the  butcher  began  to  kill 
the  ox,  and  the  ox  began  to  drink  the  water,  and  the  water  be- 
gan to  quench  the  fire,  and  the  fire  began  to  burn  the  stick,  and 
the  stick  began  to  beat  the  dog,  and  the  dog  began  to  bite 
the  pig,  and  the  pig  went  over  the  bridge,  and  she  did 
get  home  in  time  to  cook  her  old  man's  supper  after  all ! ' 
Now,  I  wish  the  modern  novelist  would  take  this  simple 
tale  for  his  guide.  I  do  so  like  a  story  with  a  nice  com- 
fortable ending  !  " 

"  Then  you  think  '  the  moral  of  that  is,'  that  in  one  shape 
or  another,  the  piece  of  cheese  is  always  necessary  to  begin 
with,  at  least  ?  " 

"  In  one  shape  or  another,  yes.  It  does  not  always  do 
to  take  it  too  literally.  And  that  reminds  me — how  are 
you  coming  on  with  the  arrangements  for  your  mob  ?  " 

"Why,  just  at  this  minute,  the  pig  isn't  going  over  the 
bridge  so  fast  as  I  could  wish.  There  is  a  little  bother 
about  the  room,  but  I  don't  feel  particularly  discouraged, 
for  I  think  I  have  the  key  to  it." 

And  Muriel  explained  about  the  chimney,  ending  with  : 

"  I  think  I'll  write  my  note  to  Mr.  Sellers  at  once,  if  you 
will  excuse  me,  for  I  wish  you  to  read  it,  and  see  if  it  can  be 
made  any  politer" 

So  the  note  was  written,  and  pronounced  as  polite 
as  it  was  possible  for  a  note  to  be,  and  then  dinner 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  267 

came  in,  but  did  not  interrupt  the  flow  of  eager  talk,  and 
May  wondered  to  herself  at  the  change  which  even  two 
weeks  had  made  in  Muriel  ;  she  was  so  much  more  cheer- 
ful and  courageous  ;  she  was  showing  such  an  increase" 
of  confidence  in  her  own  power  to  will  and  act ;  and  in 
it  all,  May  detected,  or  fancied  that  she  could  detect, 
Aunt  Sally's  bracing  influence.  The  end  of  the  evening 
came  a  great  deal  too  soon  for  both  of  them,  but  soon 
after  ten,  and  when  they  both  thought  that  it  was  soon 
after  nine,  Aunt  Sally  appeared,  escorted  by  Dick,  and 
Dick  insisted  upon  substituting  himself  for  Rogers  as 
May's  escort,  and  he  did  not  have  to  insist  very  strenu- 
ously, for  there  was  a  hearty  liking  between  these  two, 
and  they  always  enjoyed  being  together. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE     WAY     OPENS. 

"And  if  some  things  I  do  not  ask 

In  my  cup  of  blessing  be, 
I  would  have  my  spirit  filled  the  more. 

With  grateful  love  to  Thee; 
More  careful,  than  to  serve  Thee  much, 

To  please  Thee  perfectly." 

MURIEL  had  arranged  with  herself  not  to  expect  an 
answer  to  her  note  to  Mr.  Sellers  for  three  days 
from  the  time  at  which  it  was  posted.  "  That  will  allow," 
she  said,  "  for  his  being  away  for  a  day,  or  wishing  to  think 
about  it,  or  to  consult  his  agent,  and  I  mean  in  all  my  busi- 
ness transactions  to  be  very  reasonable  !  " 

So  she  was  agreeably  disappointed  when  the  noonday 
delivery  brought  her  a  very  yellow  envelope,  directed  in  an 
unknown  hand.  But  she  found  the  note  which  it  contained 
painfully  brief ;  it  merely  said  ; 

"Will  Miss  Douglas  be  kind  enough  to  call,  between  four  and  five 

o'clock  on  Friday  afternoon,  at  No.  ,  Devonshire  street,  and  oblige, 

W.  SELLERS." 

"  Do  you  think  it  looks  as  if  he  would  yield,  aunty  ? " 
asked  Muriel,  laughing,  as  she  handed  the  answer  to  her 
effort  at  polite  letter-writing  to  Aunt  Sally. 

"  I  can't  exactly  say  that,  child,"  replied  the  astute  Miss 
Bowne,  "  but  it  is  certainly  hopeful,  for  if  he  meant  posi- 
tively to  say  no,  it  would  have  been  much  easier  to  write  it 
than  to  bring  you  there,  and  say  it  to  your  face  !  " 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  269 

"  Why,  of  course  it  would  !  I  think  he  is  all  ready  to 
yield,  but  wishes  to  appear  to  have  to  be  convinced  in  or- 
der to  satisfy  his  agent." 

She  encouraged  herself  in  this  hopeful  view  of  the  case, 
and  went  quite  cheerfully  in  the  afternoon  at  the  appointed 
time.  She  found  the  place  without  any  trouble—  a  large 
furniture-establishment — and  was  shown  at  once  to  Mr. 
Sellers's  office.  Her  first  impression  was  very  favorable  ; 
he  was  a  tall,  heavily-built  old  man,  with  a  shrewd,  kindly 
face,  and  white  hair.  He  met  her  courteously  and  apolo- 
gized for  bringing  her  to  see  him,  rather  than  going  to  see 
her,  on  the  score  of  want  of  time.  Muriel  thought  this  might, 
perhaps,  be  a  hint  that  the  interview  need  not  be  a  long 
one,  and  so  proceeded  at  once  to  business,  saying  that  she 
hoped,  since  he  had  not  refused  her  request,  that  he  meant  to 
grant  it,  if  she  could  satisfy  him  that  he  would  incur  no  risk. 

"  That  is  about  it,"  he  said,  with  a  very  pleasant  smile. 
"  You  see,  Hearns,  the  agent,  told  me  what  you  wanted  the 
room  for,  and  I  hated  to  lay  a  straw  in  your  way,  but  I  have 
a  good  deal  of  money  stored  up  above  there  in  the  shape  of 
furniture,  and  materials  for  it,  and  I  felt  a  little  doubtful — 
in  fact,  I  may  say,  a  good  deal  doubtful  about  letting  you 
have  a  fire  there,  but  I  thought  I  could  tell  better  after  I 
saw  you.  I  had  a  sort  of  an  idea  that  you'd  be — well, 
somewhat  older  than  you  would  appear  to  be,  and  I  thought 
if  you  seemed  like  a  careful  person,  and  would  promise  to 
let  nobody  who  wasn't  careful  have  any  thing  to  do  with 
the  fire,  we  might  see  about  it.  How  often  do  you  expect 
to  use  the  room  ? " 

"  Only  once  a  week,  for  the  present,"  replied  Muriel. 
"  And  I  think  I  could  safely  promise  all  you  wish,  even  if 
we  should  come,  as  we  very  possibly  may,  to  use  it  oftener. 
I  would  not  ask  you,  of  course,  to  be  at  the  expense  of 
opening  the  chimney." 


270  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

"  How  do  you  know  there's  a  chimney  to  open  ? "  he  inter- 
rupted ;  "  it  doesn't  show  from  the  front  outside.  Did  you 
see  where  it  was  boarded  up  inside  ?  " 

Then  as  she  remained  silent,  fearing  to  make  trouble  for 
the  agent,  he  burst  out  laughing,  and  said  : 

"  I  see  !  That's  just  like  Hearns  !  What  sort  of  a  stove 
did  you  think  of  putting  in,  Miss  Douglas  ?  A  good  deal 
would  depend  upon  that." 

"  I  had  not  gone  that  far,"  replied  Muriel,  with  rising 
spirits,  "  and  I  would  be  willing  to  leave  that  entirely  to 
you,  Mr.  Sellers." 

"  Come  now  !  That's  reasonable  enough,  I'm  sure.  You 
see,  I've  been  thinking  the  matter  over,  and  I've  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  it  would  be  safer  for  you  to  use  wood  ;  then 
the  fire  need  not  be  made  long  beforehand,  and  it  can  be  put 
entirely  out  before  you  lock  the  room.  Wood's  expensive,  I 
know,  but  I  doubt  if  it  will  cost  you  much  more  than  coal, 
used  in  this  way,  and  it  will  be  time  enough  to  think  about 
coal,  if  we  find  wood  isn't  going  to  make  the  room  warm 
enough  for  cold  weather.  I  should  think  you'd  better 
have  a  little  fire  every  time — a  shut-up  room  always  has 
a  chilly  feel,  even  on  a  hot  day,  and  a  fire  helps 
ventilation  !" 

"  Is  the  chimney  deep  enough  for  a  fire  on  the  hearth  ?" 
asked  Muriel. 

"  Oh,  yes  ;  it's  deep  enough,"  he  answered,  "it  was  built  a 
good  long  while  ago,  that  house  was,  but  I'm  a  little  afraid 
to  let  you  try  that — a  few  loose  bricks  somewhere  up  the 
chimney  might  make  mischief.  I'll  tell  you  what,  and  he 
brightened  suddenly,  "  There's  an  old  Franklin  stove,  in 
my  garret  at  home,  an  unusually  large  one,  that  I  will  never 
use  again,  most  likely.  How  would  you  like  me  to  put  that 
in  for  you  ?" 

"  I  think  it  would  be  delightful !"  said  Muriel,  warmly  ; 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  271 

"  they  could  see  the  fire  then,  just  as  well  as  if  it  was  on  the 
hearth." 

"  So  that's  it,  is  it  ?  Well,  I  don't  know  but  you're  right ; 
it's  a  cheerful,  homelike  thing,  an  open  fire.  I  don't  think 
these  modern  contraptions  are  clear  gain,  by  a  good  deal. 
How  soon  do  you  expect  to  use  the  room  again  ? " 

"  To-morrow  afternoon  ;  so  I  am  afraid  we  can't  have 
the  fire  till  next  time.  It  does  not  matter,  though,  for  the 
weather  is  quite  mild,  and  I  will  have  the  shutters  opened 
in  the  morning  and  the  windows  lowered  from  the  top.  I 
have  a  friend  in  the  neighborhood  who  will  look  in  every 
little  while  and  see  that  all  is  right.  Besides,  I  have  the 
wood  to  order  yet,  and  I  don't  believe  I  could  get  it  and 
have  it  sawed  in  time  now." 

"  You'll  want  a  place  to  put  your  wood,"  he  said  ;  "  so 
when  you  get  it  send  a  boy  that  you  can  trust  to  me,  and 
I'll  give  you  a  key  to  the  cellar  ;  the  door's  outside,  round 
in  the  alley.  You'll  keep  the  key  yourself,  please,  along 
with  the  one  to  the  door.  And  some  of  your  scholars  ought 
to  saw  and  split  it  for  you,  I  should  think." 

"  Perhaps  they  can  ;  and  I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you 
for  speaking  of  the  cellar.  I  was  wondering  where  I  should 
put  the  wood.  Of  course,  you  will  let  me  pay  you  for  the 
use  of  the  cellar  and  of  the  stove  ?  " 

"  For  the  cellar,  yes,"  and  he  named  what  seemed  to  Mu- 
riel a  very  trifling  sum,  "  but  for  the  stove,  no.  It's  doing 
no  good  where  it  is,  and  so  I'll  do  as  a  good  many  of  us  do, 
I  reckon,  in  our  so-called  charity,  give  something  I  can't 
use  myself  and  shan't  miss  !  I  suppose  you  wouldn't  let 
me  drop  in  if  I  should  ever  be  passing  of  a  Saturday  after- 
noon ?" 

"  Only  if  you'll  help,"  said  Muriel,  smiling,  in  the  light- 
ness of  her  heart,  as  she  rose  to  go  ;  "  if  you'll  sing  them  a 
song  or  tell  them  a  story,  you  may  come  and  welcome." 


272  WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  ^ 

He  laughed  good-naturedly,  saying  : 

"  I  might  manage  the  story,  but  I'd  rather  be  excused 
from  the  song,  and  they  would,  too,  if  they  did  but  know  it  !  " 

They  parted  in  a  very  friendly  manner,  Mr.  Sellers  telling 
her  not  to  be  afraid  to  come  again  if  there  was  any  thing 
she  wanted,  and  to  come  straight  to  him  without  going  to 
Hearns  first. 

She  stopped  at  a  large  art-store  on  her  way  home,  de- 
termined to  have  one  or  two  pictures  on  the  bare  walls  the 
next  day,  and  resolving  to  sacrifice  her  own  feelings,  and 
choose  some  brilliant  chromos,  but  she  felt  so  entirely  at  a 
loss  as  to  subjects  that  she  told  the  clerk  who  waited  upon 
her  that  she  wanted  them  for  the  walls  of  "  a  sort  of  ragged 
school,"  and  especially  wished  for  something  which  would 
please  the  boys.  Her  sweet,  earnest  face  and  pleasant  man- 
ner  enlisted  his  interest,  and  he  pulled  out  his  wares  with 
great  good  will,  offering  suggestions  of  which  she  was  very 
glad,  and  the  result  of  which  was  that  she  purchased  the 
three  which  he  assured  her  were  the  most  brilliantly-col- 
ored of  the  whole  stock — a  prairie  on  fire,  with  a  stampede  of 
wild  horses  and  buffaloes  in  the  foreground,  a  fiercely- 
contested  naval  engagement,  in  which  no  less  than  three 
ships  were  in  different  stages  of  fiery  consumption,  and  a 
truly  startling  eruption  of  Mount  Vesuvius. 

"  I  think  I  ought  to  have  something  that  the  little  girls 
would  like,  too,"  she  said,  smiling  at  the  effect  of  these 
three  works  of  art  ranged  in  a  row  beneath  the  counter  ;  so 
a  dazzlingly-white  cat,  with  three  spotted  kittens  ;  a  hen 
with  some  very  yellow  chickens,  and  a  field  full  of  sheep 
and  lambs,  the  lambs  as  white  as  the  cat,  and  the  grass  as 
green  as  green  paint  could  make  it,  were  added,  and  the 
address  of  the  warehouse  given,  with  the  request  that  the 
"  order  "  should  be  sent  the  next  morning  by  some  one  who 
would  hang  it  effectively. 


IV A  YS  AND  MEANS.  273 

"  They  really  are  dreadful !  "  said  Muriel,  with  a  shud- 
der ;  "  are  you  quite  sure  the  children  will  like  them  as  well 
as  real  pictures  ? " 

"  I  am  quite  sure,"  replied  the  clerk,  emphatically  but 
respectfully  ;  "  if  you  do  not  find  that  they  '  give  satisfac- 
tion '  we  shall  be  most  happy,  of  course,  to  exchange  them 
for  pictures  of  a  higher  grade." 

She  was  about  to  leave  the  shop  when  her  eye  was  caught 
by  a  very  beautiful  steel  engraving  of  "Christ  Blessing  Lit- 
tle Children." 

"  Oh  !  "  she  exclaimed,  "  I  must  have  that,  too.  Surely 
any  one,  the  mo«t  utterly  ignorant,  can  see  the  beauty  of 
that  Face." 

So  she  added  this  one  "  real  picture  "  to  her  order,  with 
great  satisfaction,  directing  that  it  should  be  hung  in  the 
most  conspicuous  position,  and  then  hurried  home  to  tell 
Aunt  Sally  her  good  news,  sure  of  that  helpful  sympathy 
which  was  the  great  secret  of  the  attraction  felt  by  nearly 
every  one  who  came  even  within  the  limits  of  acquaintance- 
ship with  Miss  Bowne. 

She  found  Dick  waiting  for  her,  with  a  favorable  report 
concerning  benches  ;  they  were  to  be  "  on  hand  "  the  next 
morning,  when  he  would  be,  too,  and  would  arrange  the 
room,  which  had  been  cleaned  and  whitewashed,  for  the 
afternoon's  campaign. 

So  she  had  two  deeply-interested  listeners  instead  of  one, 
and  Mr.  Sellers  would,  doubtless,  have  been  much  gratified 
could  he  have  heard  the  flattering  remarks  which  his  be- 
havior called  forth. 

"  But  I'm  sorry  you  didn't  let  him  go  ahead  and  have  the 
chimney  opened  for  to-morrow,  Miss  Muriel,"  said  Dick,  at 
the  conclusion  of  her  narrative  ;  "  I  could  easily  have  scared 
you  up  enough  wood  just  for  the  hour  we  shall  be  there, 
and  it  would  be  so  much  jollier  to  have  a  nice  bright  fire." 


274  IV A  YS  AND  MEANS. 

"  Of  course  it  would,"  said  Muriel,  "  ever  so  much  ;  but 
when  he  was  being  so  very  nice  and  kind,  I  did  not  like 
even  to  seem  to  take  advantage  of  him.  And  there'll  be  the 
pictures  ;  I  didn't  tell  you  about  them  yet." 

And  she  proceeded  to  describe  the  chromos,  adding  : 

"  The  eruption  of  Mount  Vesuvius  is  almost  sufficient 
of  itself  to  warm  the  room,  and  the  weather  is  so  mild  now 
that  I  don't  believe  we  shall  suffer.  Miss  Prudence  is 
going  to  look  after  the  room  through  the  morning,  and 
see  that  it  is  well-aired  ;  and  by  next  Saturday  we  shall 
have  our  Franklin  stove  and  the  room  will  look  lovely  ! 
Miss  Prudence  has  put  up  the  curtains  and  put  down  the 
carpet  too,  and  just  think  what  a  difference  that  will 
make." 

"  May  I  ask  what  you  propose  to  do  with  your  mob  to- 
morrow besides  giving  it  a  singing-lesson,  Miss  Muriel  ?  " 
inquired  Dick. 

"  I  have  the  dolls  and  some  '  pieces  '  and  sewing-ma- 
terials for  the  girls,"  she  answered,  "  but  I  was  afraid  to 
buy  tools  by  myself ;  I  don't  know  any  thing  about  them, 
so  I  thought,  perhaps,  you  would  get  me  something  in  the 
morning,  though  I  hate  to  ask  for  so  much  of  your  time 
on  your  one  free  day." 

"  That's  all  right.  I  have  no  special  engagements  for  to- 
morrow !  But  I'm  a  little  puzzled  about  it,  myself.  Do 
you  suppose  any  of  them  would  have  sense  enough  to  learn 
scroll-sawing,  for  instance  ?  " 

"  Why,  yes.!  Of  course  they  would  !  Do  you  know  how 
to  do  it  yourself  ?  " 

"  Yes,  ma'am.  I  had  quite  a  fit  of  it  a  year  or  two  ago, 
and  I  think  I  might  give  instructions  on  a  pinch.  So  I'll 
get  some  proper  wood  and  a  dozen  saws.  I  suppose  that'll 
be  enough  to  start  with  ?  I  can  do  it  in  the  morning." 

"  Then  I'll  give  you  the  money  at  once.     That  is  a  great 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  275 

relief  to  my  small  mind.  Oh,  Dick,  what  a  comfort  you 
are  !  I  wish  I  might  have  had  a  brother." 

"  Here  when  I  am  brothering  you  with  all  my  might, 
that's  all  the  thanks  I  get  for  it !  "I  shall  go  home  at  once  ! 

"  No,  stay  to  dinner.  Make  him  stay,  Aunt  Sally  !  I 
haven't  finished  talking  to  him,  and  you've  not  had  a  chance 
to  say  a  single  word,  nor  to  hear  how  the  girls  are  after  the 
'  fandango,'  or  any  thing  !  " 

"  I  can't,  really,  this  time,"  said  Dick.  "  I  promised  the 
girls  some  carpentering  this  evening.  But  you  ask  me  the 
next  time  I'm  here,  Miss  Muriel,  and  see  if  I  don't.  Good- 
by  !" 

"  Aunt  Sally,"  said  Muriel,  when  he  was  gone.  "  I  wish 
you  might  have  the  opportunity  to  '  bring  up '  a  whole 
orphan  asylum  ! " 

"  I've  wished  that  myself,  sometimes,"  said  Aunt  Sally, 
with  that  perfect  candor  which  occasionally  became  start- 
ling, but  which  Muriel  always  found  refreshing,  "  for  I 
don't  think  there's  any  other  work  in  the  wide  world  that's 
half  so  interesting.  But,  then,  there's  the  other  side.  A 
boy  like  Dick,  with  such  a  father,  and  mother,  and  home  as 
he  had,  was  more  than  half  brought  up  by  the  time  he 
knew  how  to  talk  !  I'll  not  deny  that  I  think  I've  been 
able  to  help  it,  for  it  does  my  heart  good  to  think  so,  but  it's 
been  such  a  little,  compared  with  what  I  found  done  to  my 
hand,  that  it's  hardly  worth  mentioning.  And  you're  help- 
ing him,  Muriel,  too — helping  him  over  one  of  the  hard 
places  of  his  life.  He  doesn't  talk  out  his  grievances  the 
way  most  people  do,  and  sometimes  I  think  they  go  all  the 
harder  with  him  for  that  very  reason  ;  but  he's  having  all 
he  can  do  to  keep  on  going  to  school,  and  wait  till  he's 
eighteen  before  he  takes  hold  of  the  farm.  He's  a  born 
farmer  ;  he  hates  living  in  a  city,  and  he's  so  tall  and 
strong,  and  so  well  posted  about  his  chosen  pursuit,  that  it's 


276  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

my  belief  that  he  could  take  hold  of  that  farm  to-morrow 
and  farm  it  well,  though  I  don't  expect  to  tell  him  so  !  I 
don't  think  any  amount  of  driving  would  keep  him  in  the 
road,  but  he's  being  led.  He  knows  well  enough  that  if  he 
should  take  his  head  and  do  as  he  likes,  there's  nobody 
with  the  real  authority  to  hinder  him,  for  if  he  couldn't  get 
hold  of  Dovedale  just  yet,  he'd  have  no  trouble  in  getting  a 
good  place  on  one  of  the  farms  in  the  neighborhood,  for 
he's  known  and  liked  all  through  there  ;  but  he  knows  just 
as  well  that  the  half-dozen  or  so  of  people  whom  he  really 
loves  would  be  grieved  and  disappointed,  and  that's  what 
holds  him  back  And  that's  the  way  in  which  I  should 
bring  up  the  orphan  asylum — not  with  '  You  must  not '  and 
'  You  shall  not '  every  other  word,  but  make  them  love 
their  Saviour  and  their  earthly  friends  too  well  ever  will- 
ingly to  give  them  pain.  I  picked  up  an  old  book  of  '  Gail 
Hamilton's  '  the  other  day.  I  forget  the  name  of  it,  but  it 
was  one  of  her  early  ones — smart,  but  not  too  smart — and  I 
was  mightily  tickled  with  a  story  she  told  about  a  calf  and  a 
fence.  She  said  sLe  saw  a  movable  fence,  to  set  down  on  a 
lawn,  so  that  you  could  let  a  cow  or  a  calf  graze  without 
hurting  the  shrubbery,  and  she  told  that  man  she  calls 
'  Halicarnassus  '  about  it,  and  said  what  a  good  plan  it 
was,  and  if  they  only  had  one  they  could  let  the  calf  graze 
in  the  front  yard.  So  the  next  morning  he  called  her  out 
and  told  her  to  come  look  at  the  new  iron  fence,  and  the 
calf  grazing  ;  so  she  went,  and  there  was  the  calf,  tied  by  a 
long  rope  to  something — she  couldn't  quite  make  out 
what,  at  first — and  then,  all  of  a  sudden,  she  said,  '  Why, 
that's  our  old  crowbar  !  "  And  Halicarnassus  said  :  '  Well, 
the  fence  you  saw  was  a  centripetal  fence,  and  this  is  the 
new  centrifugal  iron  fence — that's  all  the  difference  ! '  So  it 
seems  to  me  that  a  centrifugal  fence  will  hold  firm,  when  a 
centripetal  one  would  be  knocked  down  or  jumped  over." 


WA  YS  A  ND  ME  A  NS.  277 

"  You  only  drive  my  conviction  in  deeper,  aunty,"  said 
Muriel,  laughing.  "  I  shall  not  be  satisfied  till  you  take 
an  orphan  asylum  !  " 

A  sudden  change  in  the  weather  on  Friday  night  made 
Muriel  wish  that  she  had  been  more  prompt  in  investigating 
the  fire  question.  Saturday  morning  was  raw  and  chilly, 
with  a  gray  haze  instead  of  sunshine,  and  a  decided  threat 
of  rain.  By  afternoon  it  was  a  little  less  threatening,  but 
the  wind  was  still  east,  and  uncomfortably  cool. 

"  You  mustn't  stay  long  in  that  room  to-day,  child,"  said 
Aunt  Sally,  as  Muriel  was  making  ready  to  go,  "  and  I  do 
wish  you  had  something  hot  to  give  those  poor  little  souls 
instead  of  dolls  and  scroll-saws  !  I'd  put  off  every  thing  but 
the  singing  and  a  little  talk  till  next  week." 

"  I  suppose  I'll  have  to,"  said  Muriel,  rather  dolefully, 
"  but  I  did  so  wish  to  see  how  the  little  girls  would  behave 
when  they  saw  the  dolls.  Well,  at  any  rate,  it  will  be  fun  to 
hear  what  they  say  about  the  pictures." 

The  suggestion  of  "  something  hot  "  appeared  to  Muriel 
so  good  that  she  revolved  it  in  her  mind  as  the  horse-car 
jogged  along,  and,  being  in  very  good  time,  she  stopped  at 
Miss  Prudence's  shop,  and  asked  if  there  were  any  res- 
taurant near  enough  for  a  supply  of  soup  and  soup-plates, 
or  bowls,  to  be  sent  in. 

"  Why,  yes,"  said  Miss  Prudence,  "  there's  a  little  French 
place  right  around  the  corner  here,  where  they  make  first- 
rate  soup — very  likely  out  of  the  bones  folks  leave  on  their 
plates,  but  that's  neither  here  nor  there — and  the  man  who 
keeps  it  is  an  obliging  little  soul.  I  have  my  bread  and 
cakes  baked  there,  often,  in  warm  weather.  Now,  if  you 
like,  Miss  Douglas,  I'll  go  and  give  the  order — he'd  not  be 
a  human  restaurant-keeper  if  he  didn't  charge  you  two 
prices — and  I  suppose  if  he  hasn't  enough  of  one  kind,  he 
can  just  send  whatever  he  has  ?  " 


278  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Muriel,  greatly  pleased,  "  and  I'm  so  very 
much  obliged  to  you,  Miss  Prudence.  You'd  better  say 
enough  for  forty — there  were  thirty  last  time — and  oh  ! 
a  slice  of  bread  apiece,  don't  you  think,  too  ?  " 

"  I'll  fetch  the  bread  from  a  bakery — and  my  bread-knife. 
There's  no  use  in  paying  five  cents  a  slice  for  it.  And  if 
he  can't  send  all  the  soup,  I  know  of  another  place.  You 
go  on,  Miss  Douglas,  I'll  see  that  it's  all  right." 

With  a  much  lightened  heart  Muriel  went  on,  but  stopped 
at  the  door  with  a  bewildered  feeling  that  she  must  have 
come  to  the  wrong  place.  She  had  not  seen  the  room  since 
the  carpet  had  been  put  down  and  the  curtains  hung,  and 
she  was  prepared  for  a  change  ;  but  the  chimney  had  been 
opened,  the  Franklin  stove  put  up,  and  a  merry  little  fire 
was  crackling  and  sparkling  on  tall,  brass  andirons.  The 
benches  and  tables  had  been  placed  conveniently  about  the 
large  room,  and  seemed  to  diminish  its  size.  The  chromos 
adorned  the  snow-white  walls,  and  Muriel  was  obliged  to 
admit  they  added  to  the  general  cheerfulness  ;  the  engrav- 
ing hung  over  the  fire-place,  somewhat  lower  than  the  other 
pictures,  and  in  front  of  it  the  few  children  who  had 
already  come  were  gathered,  holding  out  their  claw-like 
hands  toward  the  fire.  Dick  and  his  two  friends  stood  on  one 
side  of  the  fire-place  watching  her  face  as  she  took  it  all  in, 
but  they  came  forward  as  soon  as  she  saw  them,  and  then 
she  saw  that  Julia  was  there,  too. 

"  You  didn't  ask  me,"  said  Julia,  meekly.  "  So  I  will  go 
home,  if  you  say  I  must ;  but  I  did  want  just  to  see  how 
the  room  looked.  Please,  may  I  stay  ? " 

"  May  you  stay !  "  repeated  Muriel.  "  Of  course  you 
may ;  don't  be  a  goose  !  I  did  not  suppose  you  cared  to 
come  again.  I  thought  if  you  did  you  would  have  said  so, 
and  I  was  afraid  if  I  asked  you,  you  would  come  just  to 
please  me." 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  279 

"  And  I  was  afraid,"  replied  Julia,  "  that  if  I  asked  leave 
to  come,  you  would  be  too  polite  to  refuse,  even  if  you 
didn't  want  me  ;  so  I  resigned  myself  to  fate,  though  I 
really  did  wish  to  come  extremely,  and  then  I  met  Mr. 
Raymond  accidentally,  and  he  told  me  about  all  your  ar- 
rangements, culminating  in  the  Franklin  stove.  That  was 
before  lunch,  this  morning.  So,  after  lunch,  I  pretended 
to  myself  that  I  had  an  errand  somewhere  in  this  neighbor- 
hood, and  after  that  I  simply  came  !  " 

"  I  am  very  glad  you  did — very  glad,  indeed,"  said  Mu- 
riel, with  such  evident  cordiality  and  sincerity  that  Julia 
looked  much  pleased.  "  You  have  a  way  of  talking  to  them 
that  fills  me  with  admiration  and  envy,  and,  with  you  to  help, 
I  even  feel  that  one  or  two  of  them  may  possibly  learn  to 
thread  a  needle.  But  I  am  overcome  by  that  stove.  Dick, 
were  you  in  the  conspiracy  ? " 

"  Only  since  this  morning,"  said  Dick,  "  when  I  was  here 
having  the  benches  and  tables  put  in.  Two  men  came  first 
and  opened  the  chimney,  and  they'd  hardly  finished  and 
gone  away  when  two  more  came  with  a  half-wagon  load  of 
wood,  sawed,  but  not  split,  and  the  stove  perched  on  top  of 
it.  I  helped  put  the  wood  in  the  cellar — they  brought  the 
key,  and  left  it  with  me,  after  they'd  made  sure  I  was  re- 
sponsible— and  came  back  in  time  to  light  the  fire.  They 
left  a  note  for  you,  too  ;  I've  got  it  somewhere  ;  oh  !  here 
it  is." 

This  was  ail  there  was  of  it : 

"  Will  Miss  Douglas  allow  an  old  man,  who  is  too  busy 
making  money  to  look  after  his  neighbors,  to  salve  his  con- 
science by  giving  a  little  of  the  money  ? 

"Very  respectfully,  W.  SELLERS." 

"  Yes,  I  think  I  will,"  said  Muriel  to  Julia,  who,  respons- 
ive to  her  gesture,  was  reading  over  her  shoulder.  "  If 


280  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

he'd  just  sent  money,  perhaps  I  wouldn't ;  but  he's  taken 
the  trouble  to  send  'money's  worth.'  And  I  begin  to  see 
such  boundless  vistas  of  '  opportunities.'  Where  are  the 
rest  of  you  ?  "  she  asked,  turning  to  the  children,  some 
half-dozen,  who  were  now  going  from  picture  to  picture, 
making  free  and  very  amusing  comments. 

"  They're  comin',  lady  ;  they're  waitin'  for  Jake,"  said 
the  boy  who  was  standing  nearest  to  her.  "  But  Jake,  he's 
too  stuck-up  for  us,  and  we're  not  goin'  to  let  him  boss  us 
no  longer  !  He  said  for  all  of  us  to  wait  for  him  up  on  the 
corner  yander,  and  then  he'd  a'  marched  us  in,  like  he 
owned  the  whole  bilin'  of  us  ;  but  we  weren't  takin'  none  op 
that  in  our'n,  so  we  jest " 

The  doughty  speaker's  voice  suddenly  died  away,  and  he 
stepped  behind  Julia,  thus  placing  her  between  himself  and 
the  door.  For  at  that  minute  a  scuffle  of  feet  and  con- 
fusion of  tongues  was  heard,  and  Jake  appeared  at  the  head 
of  his  army,  the  balance  of  the  thirty  who  had  come  on  the 
previous  Saturday,  but,  somewhat  to  Muriel's  surprise,  no 
more.  He  pulled  off  his  ragged  cap  as  he  entered,  and, 
evidently  prompted  by  this  signal,  the  rest  of  the  boys  did 
the  same. 

"  You  can  hang  your  hats  up  here,"  said  Dick,  coming 
forward  and  directing  them  to  one  corner,  where  a  long, 
narrow  board,  decorated  with  a  row  of  clothes-pins  driven 
well  into  it,  hung  within  reach  of  the  smallest  boy  there. 

"  Oh,  Dick  !  "  said  Muriel,  beaming  on  him.  "  You 
think  of  every  thing  !  " 

Which  remark  seemed  to  Dick  "  an  over-payment  of  de- 
light "  for  the  hour  which  he  had  devoted  to  the  manufac- 
ture of  the  hat-rack.  But  before  he  could  say  that,  or  any 
thing  else,  Jake's  voice  was  heard  in  its  most  truculent  tones, 
saying  : 

"  And  so  you  thought  you'd  be  mighty  smart  and  git  the 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  281 

start  of  me,  hey  ?  Well,  you  just  come  outside  here  for 
about  a  minute,  where  the  ladies  can't  see  us,  and  I'll  show 
you  how  smart  you  are  !  " 

"  No,"  said  Charley  Arrnitage,  stepping  forward  as  the 
"smart"  boy,  braced  by  the  stinging  taunt,  was  about  to 
accept  the  invitation.  "  You  take  me  instead  ;  that  boy 
isn't  as  big  as  you  are  by  several  sizes,  you  know,  and  gen- 
tlemen don't  fight  with  fellows  smaller  than  they  are.  Come 
on,  and  I'll  stand  quite  still  while  you  pitch  into  me,  and 
then  we'll  come  back  and  have  the  music — the  ladies  are 
waiting,  you  see  !  " 

Jake's  face  was  a  study,  but  he  did  not  stir  far  a  moment. 
Then  he  turned  his  back  on  the  enemy,  with  a  great  show 
of  lofty  scorn,  remarking  : 

"The  gentleman's  right — you're  too  small  entirely  for 
me  to  take  any  notice  of  you,  or  to  keep  the  music  waiting 
while  I  lick  you  !  " 

Julia,  with  her  face  entirely  concealed  from  view,  ap- 
peared to  be  rapt  in  a  study  of  Mount  Vesuvius.  Muriel's 
fright  at  the  threatening  aspect  of  affairs  deprived  her  of 
all  desire  to  laugh,  at  the  time,  and  the  three  boys  managed 
not  to  laugh  aloud. 

"  Come,"  said  Julia,  turning  round  suddenly ;  "  sit 
down,  please,  all  of  you — you  see  there  are  plenty  of 
seats  to-day  —  and  then  we  will  have  the  music  at 
once.  You  are  to  join  in  just  as  soon  as  you  can  pick  up 
the  tune." 

They  sat  down  immediately,  and  Jim  and  Charley  struck 
up  the  song  agreed  upon,  in  which  there  was  to  be  a  slight 
change  in  the  words  of  the  last  verse,  so  as  to  leave  out  the 
"  ghost." 

It  was  "  Cockles  and  Muscles,"  and  had  been  chosen  for 
the  pretty,  plaintive  tune,  so  easy  to  catch.  As  before,  the 
children  began  to  sing  almost  immediately,  and  were  fairly 


282  IV A  YS  AND  MEANS. 

shouting  when  they  came  to  the  last  verse.  As  soon  as  it 
was  finished  two  or  three  boys  called  out : 

"  Let's  have  '  Marchin'  Through  Georgy  '  agin' !  " 

So  they  had  it,  and  went  so  wild  over  it  that  Muriel 
hailed  with  joy  the  appearance  of  Miss  Prudence,  followed 
by  two  waiters,  with  apparently  unlimited  soup.  She  her- 
self had  a  large  basket  of  bread. 

"  Well,  I  declare  !  "  she  said,  as  she  came  in  ;  "  what  a 
nice,  clean-faced  parcel  of  children  ! " 

"  Our  hands  is  clean,  too,  ma'am,"  said  the  blue-eyed 
baby,  without  any  profanity  this  time  ;  and  it  pleased  Muriel 
to  see  that  this  made  a  good  many  of  the  children  laugh. 

But  it  made  her  heart  ache  to  see  the  eager,  hungry  look 
which  came  into  their  faces  as  soon  as  they  smelt  the  soup, 
and  the  wolfish  greediness  with  which  it  was  devoured. 
She  paid  the  waiters  for  the  soup,  and  Miss  Prudence  for  the 
bread,  very  glad  that  her  order  had  been  for  forty,  for  not 
a  vestige  of  either  was  left. 

Then  Muriel,  feeling  far  less  shy  and  awkward  than  she 
had  felt  a  week  ago,  unwrapped  the  dolls,  while  Dick  dis- 
played the  saws,  and  she  explained  to  the  children  that 
these  treasures  were  to  be  kept  in  the  room  and  used  every 
week.  The  boys  nearly  all  showed  pleasure  and  eagerness 
to  learn,  but  it  was  nothing,  compared  with  the  delight  of 
the  girls  over  their  dolls.  A  very  few  were  indifferent,  but 
most  of  them  astonished  Muriel  by  the  change  which  came 
over  their  faces.  They  hugged  and  dandled  and  rocked 
the  dolls.  When  Muriel  and  Julia  began  to  write  the  name 
of  each  girl  on  a  slip  of  paper,  and  to  pin  it  to  the  doll  she 
held,  until  they  could  be  marked  with  ink,  several  of  them 
exclaimed  : 

"  Oh,  lady,  please  don't  stick  a  pin  in  my  baby  !  " 

They  had  been  made  to  understand  why  the  names  were 
put  on  the  dolls — that  each  one  might  have  the  same  doll 


WAYS   AND  MEANS.  283 

next  time — and  Julia  and  Muriel  exchanged  glances,  as  at 
least  half  a  dozen  of  them  gave  names  which  were  not  on 
the  list  made  the  week  before.  But  they  judged  it  best  to 
take  no  notice  of  this  discrepancy. 

"  We  must  fix  up  some  kind  of  a  locker  for  them  to  keep 
their  things  in,  Miss  Muriel,"  said  Dick,  as  he  piled  up  the 
saws  in  the  corner,  while  Julia  collected  the  dolls,  for  it  was 
too  late  to  begin  the  lessons  to-day. 

"  I  think  a  row  of  little  closets,  with  their  names  on  the 
doors,  would  be  best,"  replied  Muriel.  "  There  might  be  a 
shelf  or  two  in  each.  But  I'll  have  a  carpenter  to  do  it, 
Dick — that  one  in  whose  shop  you  work  sometimes — and  if 
you  will  leave  the  order  for  me,  you  can  make  him  under- 
stand better  than  I  could." 

"  I  suppose  I  must,"  said  Dick,  regretfully ;  "  but  I 
do  wish  there  was  time  for  me  to  make  them.  It  would 
take  me  two  or  three  Saturdays,  though,  and  you  ought  to 
have  them  by  next  time." 

"  I'm  just  as  much  obliged  to  you  as  if  you  did  it,"  said 
Muriel,  gratefully.  "  I  suppose  we  must  tell  the  poor  little 
souls  to  go,"  she  added.  "  I  hate  to  do  it — look  how  they're 
gathering  about  the  fire.  But  it's  after  five,  now,  and  Aunt 
Sally  will  be  worried  if  I'm  late." 

"  She  wouldn't  thank  you  for  saying  she'd  be  '  worried,'  " 
said  Dick,  laughing.  "  She  despises  people  who  worry. 
Miss  Muriel,  look  there,  will  you." 

Muriel  looked.  Jake  was  standing  in  front  of  Mount 
Vesuvius,  looking  at  it  with  critical  and  rather  skeptical 
eyes.  He  turned  to  Julia,  who  had  purposely  come  near 
him,  and  asked  : 

"  What's  that  a  picture  of,  anyhow — a  chimbley  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  Julia.  "  It  is  a  mountain,  Jake,  that  is  all  on 
fire  inside,  like  a  chimney." 

"  What's  a  mountain  ? " 


284  W 'A  YS  AND  MEANS. 

Julia  paused  a  moment ;  then  : 

"  See  here  ;  I'll  show  you,"  she  said.  "  Come  here  to  the 
hearth." 

And  taking  the  shovel  she  heaped  up  a  little  pile  of  ashes 
and  coals,  saying,  as  she  worked  : 

"  Now,  we'll  suppose  the  hearth  is  the  flat  ground  like 
the  street,  and  this  match  is  a  man  ;  see,  when  I  stick  him 
up  so,  in  this  crack,  the  mountain  is  ever  so  many  times 
higher  than  he  is." 

"  Oh,"  said  Jake,  "  then  a  mountain's  just  a  hill  that's 
growed  up  higher.  Are  they  all  on  fire  inside,  like  that  ? " 

He  had  returned  to  the  picture,  and  gazed,  fascinated  by 
the  display  of  fireworks  depicted  by  the  artist. 

"  No,"  said  Julia  ;  "  only  a  few  of  them." 

"  How  did  they  get  afire,  anyhow  ?  " 

"  We  don't  know.  There  seems  to  be  fire  in  the  inside 
of  the  earth,  and  sometimes  it  breaks  out  through  the  top 
of  a  mountain." 

"  Why  don't  they  put  it  out  ? " 

Julia  glanced  at  his  face.     He  was  in  dead  earnest. 

"  What  could  they  put  it  out  with? "  she  asked. 

"  Water,"  he  replied,  with  evident  scorn  of  her  ignorance. 

"  They  can't,"  she  said.  "  Where  could  any  body  find 
water  enough  to  put  out  a  whole  mountain  on  fire  ? " 

"  Out  of  that  river,"  and  he  pointed  to  the  Bay  of 
Naples.  "  I'll  bet  they'd  do  it,  too,  if  it  was  here  in 
Boston." 

"  Perhaps  they  would,"  said  Julia,  in  a  quivering  voice  ; 
and  then  Muriel  asked  for  silence,  and  made  her  little 
speech,  praising  them  for  their  clean  hands  and  faces,  and 
"  much  neater  "  hair,  inviting  them  for  the  next  Saturday, 
and  promising  that  the  girls  should  learn  to  make  clothes 
for  their  dolls,  and  the  boys  to  saw,  and  that  there  should 
be  "  more  soup." 


"Taking  the  shovel,  she  heaped  up  a  little  pile  of  ashes  and  coals." 

P.  284. 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  285 

They  listened  quite  quietly,  but  when  she  stopped,  Jake 
said  : 

"  Please,  lady,  wouldn't  they  give  us  just  one  more  afore 
we  go  ? " 

And  he  jerked  his  thumb  toward  Charley  and  Jim. 

"  Will  you  ?  "  asked  Muriel,  smiling. 

"  Yes,  indeed,"  said  Jim,  readily. 

Charley  said  something  to  him  in  a  low  tone  ;  he  looked 
a  little  embarrassed,  but  nodded,  and  they  began,  "  I  was  a 
wandering  sheep." 

Muriel  was  greatly  touched  and  pleased — too  much 
touched  to  meet  their  eyes,  for,  once  more,  she  felt  that  her 
own  were  filled  with  tears  ;  the  children  were  singing  di- 
rectly, the  tune  only,  of  course,  but  either  she  fancied  it,  or 
a  change  stole  over  the  little  faces,  all  of  them  either  bad, 
or  brazen,  or  hard,  some  of  them  all  three.  She  was  stand- 
ing close  by  Julia,  and  quite  unconsciously  caught  her  hand 
and  held  it  fast  till  the  singing  ceased.  Then  their  eyes 
met,  and  Muriel  whispered  unsteadily,  "  Why,  it's  made  you 
cry,  too  !" 

Jake  stepped  forward  and  held  out  his  hand,  saying  : 
"  Thank  you,  lady  ;  we've  had  a  high  old  time,  and  we'll 
all  come  next  Saturday.  And  I  won't  lick  no  more  of  'em 
that  ain't  my  size — you  can  tell  him — and  he  pointed  at 
Charley.  "  Nobody  shan't  say  I'm  no  gentleman  !  And 
we'll  go  right  off,  as  soon  as  you've  told  us,  but  who's  He, 
and  what's  He  doin'  to  them  children  ?  " 

Muriel's  heart  leaped  ;  she  had  been  much  disappointed 
that  none  of  them  had  spoken  of  this  picture.  She  thought 
a  brief,  fervent  prayer  for  the  right  words. 

"  That,"  she  said,  distinctly  enough  for  them  all  to  hear, 
"Is  the  Saviour  of  the  World,  one.  Who  died  to  save  all  of 
us  from  badness  and  sorrow,  and  punishment.  He  has 
gone  away  to  His  home  in  another  world,  a  beautiful  world 


286  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

where  nobody  is  sick,  or  poor,  or  in  pain  any  more,  and  if 
we  follow  Him,  He  will  take  us  all  where  He  is,  when  we 
die.  I  am  going  to  tell  you  a  great  deal  more  about  Him 
next  time  ;  but  now,  say  this  after  me,  all  of  you,  please, 
«  Who  loved  me,  and  gave  Himself  for  me  ? '  " 

After  two  or  three  trials  every  voice  seemed  to  join,  and 
then  she  let  them  go. 

"  You  are  the  bravest,  after  all,"  whispered  Julia,  as  the 
last  flutter  of  rags  disappeared. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

ADVICE — ASKED    AND    UNASKED. 

'•  'Tis  an  awkward  thing  to  play  with  souls." 

— ROBERT  BROWNING. 

JT  was  only  by  taking  backward  glances,  from  week  to 
week,  that  Muriel  could  see  much  growth  in  her  scholars. 
Little  by  little  they  learned,  with  humiliating,  discouraging 
lapses  and  relapses.  Jake's  fiery  temper  and  domineering  dis- 
position came  very,  very  slowly  under  the  law  of  love,  but 
they  came — for  when  Muriel,  trembling  at  her  own  daring,  had 
told  them  in  simplest  words,  the  story  of  the  birth,  the  life, 
the  death  of  the  Saviour  of  the  World,  it  seemed  to  impress 
none  of  them  as  it  did  Jake.  He  had  implicit  faith  in 
Muriel,  by  this  time,  and  when  she  told  it,  he  listened  with 
eager  interest  and  excitement,  raging  at  the  wickedness  and 
cruelty  of  the  Jews,  wondering  why  "  God  didn't  kill  the 
whole  of  them."  But  when,  at  last,  he  fully  comprehended  ; 
when  Muriel  told  him  of  the  two  great  armies  all  over  the 
world,  the  army  of  God,  and  the  army  of  the  devil,  the 
spirit  of  evil  and  sin  ;  that  one  must  take  one  side  or  the 
other  ;  that  the  Saviour  Himself  said,  "  He  that  is  not  with 
Me  is  against  Me  ;  "  that  every  time  he  conquered  his  tem- 
per, or  a  temptation  to  lie,  or  steal,  or  swear,  he  was  win- 
ning a  victory  for  his  Saviour,  the  Captain  of  his  salvation  ; 
then  the  change  began  which  she  wondered  to  see.  The 
struggle  was  as  fierce  as  every  thing  about  him  seemed  to 
be  ;  he  would  come  to  her  with  heart-broken  questions,  as 
to  whether  he  could  be  forgiven  and  allowed  to  "  try  again," 


288  iv A  YS  AND  MEANS. 

he  talked  to  the  other  children,  trying  to  fire  them  with  zeal 
to  "  fight  for  our  side,"  and  as  he  had  a  following  of  ad- 
miring imitators,  and  was  feared  as  well  as  admired,  his  in- 
fluence was  noticeable  in  the  behavior  of  the  rest.  His  iove 
for,  and  devotion  to  Muriel  were  very  touching  to  see,  and 
comforted  her  under  many  discouragements.  And  the  vivid 
manner  in  which  his  belief  impressed  itself  upon  his  life, 
often  made  her  ashamed  for  her  own  lukewarmness. 

Aunt  Sally  went  with  her  to  the  warehouse  on  the  third 
Saturday  ;  she  had  managed  to  decline  on  the  two  previous 
ones,  and  Muriel  decided  in  her  own  mind  that  she  had  been 
purposely  left  to  herself,  that  she  might  "  find  her  feet  "  and 
stand  firmly.  Julia  kept  oncoming  ;  Kate  began  to  come  ; 
May  stole  the  time  once  or  twice  from  her  busiest  day  in 
the  week,  that  day  to  which  nearly  every  thing  but  her  daily 
school  duties  seemed  to  be  postponed  !  Dick  kept  on  with 
ever  growing  interest  and  resource  ;  Charley  and  Jim  came 
for  a  closing  "  sing,"  or,  if  they  were  hindered,  sent  sub- 
stitutes, until  before  very  long,  Muriel  knew  and  liked  the 
whole  club. 

Mr.  Sellers  "  dropped  in  "  more  than  once,  and  always 
told  the  required  story  ;  the  children  liked  him  and  listened 
with  eager  attention  to  his  :  "  Now,  when  /  was  a  boy," 
and  whatever  reminiscence  would  follow.  The  number  of 
children  kept  on  increasing  till  the  room  was  well-filled, 
and  Muriel  discovered  after  a  good  while  the  reason  why 
it  had  not  increased  more  rapidly  at  first — the  first  comers, 
led  by  Jake,  had  forborne  to  mention  their  new  resort,  fear- 
ing that  if  too  many  came,  "  the  lady  "  would  stop  giving 
them  things  !  But  after  Jake  began  to  "  fight  "  in  earnest, 
he  was  as  eager  to  gather  his  mates  in,  as  he  had  been  be- 
fore to  keep  them  out. 

All  this,  of  course,  was  the  growth  of  many  weeks,  and 
many  other  things  were  growing  at  the  same  time.  The  re- 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  289 

moval  of  the  families  in  the  Row,  under  Miss  Prudence  Har- 
ley's  able  generalship,  was  accomplished  without  much  fric- 
tion, and  her  suggestions  were  most  valuable. 

Muriel  happened  to  speak  to  her  about  the  furniture  she 
meant  to  send,  and  mentioned  mattresses,  when  Miss  Pru- 
dence exclaimed  : 

"  Now  Miss  Muriel  !  Why  should  you  run  into  such  a 
needless  expense  ?  What  you  want  is,  to  send  up  a  dozen 
large  sacks,  the  size  of  a  bed,  of  some  coarse,  cheap  stuff, 
and  they  can  fill  them  with  fresh,  sweet  rye-straw,  and  throw 
it  away  when  they  come  back  !  And  don't  you  go  buying 
bedding — make  each  family  take  its  own.  They  won't  need 
so  much  as  if  it  was  winter,  but  they'll  need  more  than  just 
sheets,  for  its  chilly  up  there  ! " 

This  was  only  one  instance  out  of  many.  Muriel  fell 
into  the  habit  of  consulting  Miss  Prudence  on  all  doubt- 
ful points  connected  with  the  summer  campaign,  and  always 
found  her  equal  to  the  emergency. 

May  Douglas  was  quite  in  earnest  about  taking  one  of 
the  houses  for  the  two  weeks'  holiday  in  July,  and  Miss 
Forsythe  consented,  more  to  please  her  than  because  she 
herself  felt  very  enthusiastic  about  it.  She  would  have  pre- 
ferred a  plan  which  would  have  given  them  both  rest  from 
the  "wearing"  housekeeping  which  attends  a  narrow  in- 
come. But  she  very  rarely  urged  a  plan  simply  and 
solely  because  she  preferred  it.  Before  the  bargain  was 
concluded,  however,  May,  in  the  fulness  of  her  joy  about 
it,  told  the  Raymonds  what  they  were  about  to  do,  and 
was  met  with  a  general  outcry  : 

"  Why,  May  !  "  said  Marion,  "  we've  been  counting  on 
having  Miss  Agnes  and  you  for  your  vacation.  We've 
talked  so  much  about  it  that  we  considered  it  quite  settled." 

"  After  all  your  talk  about  liking  to  garden  and  fish,  and 
take  long  tramps,  Miss  May  !  "  said  Dick,  reproachfully. 


290  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

"  Please  don't  take  the  house,  dear  ;  we  shall  be  so  very 
much  disappointed  if  you  don't  spend  your  vacation  with 
us,"  said  Alice,  earnestly.  "We're  going  to  ask  Miss  Muriel 
to  come  for  as  long  as  she  will,  not  just  because  we  want 
Aunt  Sally,  but  because  we  like  her,  and  want  to  see  more 
of  her,  and  we  thought  we  would  try  to  arrange  to  have  you 
all  there  together.  Isn't  that  an  inducement  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Marion,  before  she  could  answer,  "  and  Rose 
and  Jack,  and  Fanny  and  Stephen  are  all  coming,  and  we 
meant  to  have  somebody  in  every  single  room,  and  go  on  a 
pic-nic  nearly  every  day.  You  can't  resist  that  !  " 

"  But  it's  all  so  sudden,"  said  May  laughing.  "  You  take 
away  my  breath.  Pray,  how  was  I  to  know  that  you  were 
hatching  such  a  delightful  conspiracy  ?  " 

"  You  weren't  to  know  till  it  was  ripe,"  said  Dick,  "  we 
were  going  to  spring  it  on  you,  as  it  were,  after  every  thing 
was  arranged  ;  but  when  you  go  to  talking  of  dragging 
poor  Miss  Agnes  off  to  a  howling  wilderness,  where  you'll 
not  have  any  thing  much  to  eat  but  wild  raspberries,  and 
will  have  to  do  your  own  cooking,  it  is  high  time  for  your 
friends  to  interfere  ;  and,  unless  you  really  prefer  the 
society  of  the  Row  to  that  of  the  Raymonds,  you  haven't  a 
word  to  say,  but '  Yes,  thank  you,  I  shall  be  most  happy  ! '  " 

"  I  am  very  much  tempted  to  say  it,"  replied  May,  "  sub- 
ject, of  course,  to  Aunt  Agnes's  veto  ;  but  one  reason  I  had 
for  wishing  to  go  to  Hartswell  was,  that  Muriel  expects  to 
be  there  a  good  deal  of  the  time  this  summer,  and  is  talking 
of  trying  to  find  places  for  some  of  the  '  mob  '  to  board  for 
a  few  weeks,  and  I  thought  perhaps  I  could  help  her  in 
some  way.  I  haven't  been  able  to,  you  know,  on  account 
of  the  school." 

"  I  think  you  ought  to  rest  during  your  short  holiday  ^ 
dear,"  said  Alice,  "and  I  know  Miss  Muriel  would  think  so 
too.  Come,  will  you  leave  the  decision  to  Miss  Forsythe  ? 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  29! 

You  know  you  have  great  confidence  in  her  judgment,  so 
you  can  trust  her  to  decide." 

"  If  I  did  not  mean  to  go  I  should  have  stopped  my  ears 
and  fled  at  the  first  attack,"  said  May,  "  for  it  sounds  very 
tempting  and  1  feel  myself  wavering,  so  I  will  save  my 
dignity  by  leaving  the  decision  with  Aunt  Agnes." 

"  Then  we  are  quite  safe  !  "  said  Marion,  joyfully,  "  for  I 
know  she'd  rather  come  to  Dovedale  than  go  to  that  out- 
landish place  and  consort  with  the  '  mob.'  " 

Which,  although  Miss  Forsythe  did  not  put  it  quite  so 
forcibly,  proved  to  be  precisely  her  view  of  the  case,  and 
May's  slight  disappointment  at  the  failure  of  her  plan  was 
entirely  effaced  when  she  found  that  Muriel  had  accepted  the 
invitation  to  Dovedale  for  at  least  the  two  weeks  when  May 
and  her  aunt  would  be  there.  Aunt  Sally  would  stay  a 
month  ;  but  Muriel  said  it  must  depend  upon  how  her 
various  affairs  were  prospering,  whether  she  also  could  stay 
so  long  or  not.  There  would  be  no  trouble  about  leaving 
the  house.  Margery  and  Rogers  had  summered  and  win- 
tered there  for  so  many  years  that  they  would  have  felt  it 
more  of  a  penance  than  a  pleasure  to  take  a  holiday  now. 
The  housemaid  would  go  home  for  a  visit,  for  she  would 
not  be  needed  during  Muriel's  absence.  Miss  Post  had 
been  urged  to  say  freely  whether  she  would  prefer  to  stay 
where  she  was  or  to  go  to  some  quiet  country  place  during 
this  time,  and,  finding  that  the  house  would  remain  open  in 
any  event,  she  had  elected  to  remain  there. 

"  You  see,  my  dear  Miss  Douglas,"  she  had  said  to 
Muriel,  "  I  am  quite  used  to  these  two  rooms  now,  and  can 
find  my  way  about  easily,  while  it  would  take  me  some  time 
to  get  used  to  a  new  place.  I  don't  think  Maidie  will 
suffer,  or  I  would  not  stay  ;  but  this  house  really  is  almost 
in  the  country,  and  much  better  situated  than  her  aunt's,  to 
which  she  would  go  back  if  she  were  to  leave  here.  I  can't 


2Q2  IV A  YS  AND  MEANS. 

help  thinking  what  it  might  have  been  if  you  had  not  found 
me  just  before  this  little  cloud  settled  upon  me.  It  gives 
me  such  confidence  for  all  future  straits.  It  would  be  abso- 
lutely wicked  ever  to  doubt  after  this  !  " 

Muriel  found  her  room  at  the  warehouse  so  cool,  even 
during  the  sudden  and  "  trying  "  warm  weather  which  came, 
as  it  so  often  does,  early  in  May,  that  she  had  a  great  desire 
to  give  the  children  more  benefit  of  it  than  the  two  or  three 
hours  a  week  which  they  spent  there  allowed  them.  Aunt 
Sally  and  she  agreed  that  if  only  some  suitable  person 
could  be  found  to  sit  there  and  keep  order,  and  see  that 
nothing  was  carried  away,  they  might  be  permitted  to  come 
there  and  work  or  play,  as  they  chose,  two  or  three  times  a 
week.  But  where  could  they  find  the  suitable  person  ? 

"  It's  my  belief  Margery  would  do  it,"  said  Aunt  Sally, 
after  "  studying,"  as  Rogers  would  have  said,  for  several 
minutes.  "  You've  told  me,  you  know,  my  dear,  how  it  was 
she  who  first  helped  you  to  help  any  one,  and  I've  been 
thinking  lately  that  now,  when  your  chances  are  widening 
so,  it  would  be  only  fair  to  see  if  she  wouldn't  like  to  share 
some  of  them  with  you.  She's  such  a  sensible  body,  and 
so  warm-hearted  under  her  stern  manner,  that  she  could  be 
fully  trusted  in  any  thing  she  would  undertake,  I  think. 
And  she's  very  fond  of  children,  and  good  to  them,  I  should 
judge,  by  the  way  she's  behaved  to  Maidie,  and  is  behaving  to 
that  young  flibbertigibbet  who  came  the  other  day,  and  who 
is  nothing  but  a  child,  for  all  her  little  grown-up  airs  and 
graces." 

"  Yes,"  said  Muriel,  switching  Aunt  Sally  back  to  the 
main  track,  as  one  of  her  own  children  might  have  done  it, 
"  Margery  is  very  good  to  Maidie  and  Lizzy,  and  to  Robert 
too.  She  is  really  quite  enthusiastic  about  Robert ;  he  is  a 
young  man  after  her  own  heart.  I  heard  her  telling  Maidie 
only  yesterday,  that  he  never  forgot  to  hang  up  all  his  things 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  293 

in  their  proper  places  !  I  suppose  poor  Maidie  had  been 
leaving  something  that  should  have  been  hung  up  on  a 
chair,  or,  still  worse,  on  the  floor  !  She's  only  human  after 
all.  So  perhaps  Margery  would  enjoy  having  a  chance  at 
my  '  mob '  two  or  three  times  a  week.  It's  really  a  shame 
for  me  to  call  it  a  mob  any  longer  ;  but  the  name  seems  to 
stick.  I  will  ask  her,  anyhow,  and  if  for  any  reason  she 
should  not  see  fit  to  do  it,  she  will  not  hesitate  to  tell 
me  so." 

"  No,  that's  one  thing  I  like  about  her,"  said  Aunt  Sally, 
"  you  may  always  believe  exactly  what  she  says  about  every 
thing." 

"  But,  aunty,  don't  you  you  think  it  is  possible  for  one  to 
be  perfectly  frank  and  honest  without  being  quite  so  blunt 
as  Margery  is  sometimes,  and  saying  things  that  are  calcu- 
lated to  hurt  people's  feelings  or  make  them  angry  ?  I  am 
used  to  her  and  don't  mind  her,  generally  speaking,  because 
I  know  how  much  worse  her  bark  is  than  her  bite  ;  but  I 
should  love  her  still  better,  I  think,  if  she  didn't  even 
bark." 

"  Yes,  I  suppose  a  body  could  be  honest  without  being 
blunt,  and  it  isn't  always  necessary,  either,  to  proclaim  an 
abstract  truth  because  it  is  the  truth.  I've  suffered  for 
speaking  out  more  times  than  I  could  count,  but  never,  that 
I  know  of,  for  keeping  still  when  I  might  have  spoken.  And 
I've  yet  to  find  the  person  who  has." 

"  You  shall  not  put  yourself  in  the  same  boat  with  Mar- 
gery, Aunt  Sally  !  "  said  Muriel,  stooping  to  kiss  her.  "You 
might  as  well  compare  a  Damascus  blade  with  a  butcher- 
knife  !  " 

Aunt  Sally  laughed. 

"  You  see  you're  calling  me  sharp,  yourself,  childie,"  she 
said  ;  "  sharper  even  than  Margery  is  !  " 

Muriel  took  the  first  opportunity  to  speak  with  Margery 


294  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

about  the  plan  of  opening  the  room  two  or  three  times  a 
week  through  the  summer,  for  the  benefit  of  the  children, 
and  when  the  old  woman  admitted  that  it  might  be  a  good 
plan,  Muriel  said  : 

"  You  see,  we'd  have  to  have  some  one  to  sit  there  and 
keep  order,  and  see  that  they  don't  carry  off  the  things,  and 
lock  up  the  closets  after  they're  gone,  and  I  was  thinking, 
Margery,  if  you  would  be  willing  to  do  it,  you'd  be  just  the 
very  person.  You're  so  clever  with  tools,  that  you  could 
help  the  boys  as  well  as  the  girls,  and  I  don't  know  of  any 
body  else,  at  all,  whom  I'd  like  to  have  for  this  so  well  as 
I'd  like  to  have  you." 

Margery's  face  showed  her  gratification,  but  she  said 
duly: 

"  I  thought  you  had  all  the  help  you  wanted,  with  your 
fine  cousins  and  Mr.  Richard,  and  his  young  men  from  the 
singing-class.  I'm  too  old-fashioned,  I'm  thinking,  to  pull 
in  the  same  boat  with  the  like  of  them  !  " 

Muriel  threw  her  arms  about  her  old  nurse's  neck,  laugh- 
ing, as  she  said  : 

"  Now,  Margery,  don't  pull  your  head  in  every  time  your 
shell  is  touched  !  You  know  you'll  do  it,  and  that  the 
children  will  all  like  you,  and  that  the  boys  will  think  you're 
a  wonderful  woman,  as  soon  as  they  see  how  you  can  handle 
a  hammer  and  saw  !  " 

"  And  when  would  you  like  that  I  should  go,  Miss  Muriel, 
my  dear  ?  "  asked  Margery,  ignoring  Muriel's  speech,  but 
passing  her  hand  softly  over  the  "  bonny  brown  hair,"  as 
she  spoke.  So  they  settled  upon  two  afternoons  in  the 
week  besides  Saturday,  and  it  was  not  long  before  Margery 
was  the  most  zealous  of  all  the  corps. 

Muriel  felt  what  almost  amounted  to  a  twinge  of  jealousy, 
as  she  saw  the  queer  friendship  which  presently  sprang  up 
between  Margery  and  Jake.  But  she  need  not  have  felt 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  295 

even  a  twinge.  No  friendship  for  any  one  else  could  ever 
supplant  his  "  lady  "  in  his  heart,  and  it  was  partly  because 
Margery  was  of  his  lady's  household,  that  he  first  gave  her 
his  allegiance,  and  seconded  her  authority  with  the  other 
children. 

She  was  astonished,  as  Muriel  herself  was,  to  see  how 
quickly  the  children  had  learned  to  use  their  hands,  to  be- 
have with  some  sort  of  propriety,  and  to  moderate  their 
voices.  The  rule  regarding  the  "  perfectly  clean  hands  and 
faces  "  had  been  rigidly  enforced,  and  had  done  much  in 
the  way  of  civilization. 

Among  the  other  additions  to  the  room — and  it  was  one 
of  Julia's  many  suggestions,  which,  as  she  frequently  did, 
she  carried  out  herself — was  a  pair  of  large  screens,  each 
with  three  leaves  ;  just  light  frames,  like  clothes-horses, 
with  brown  chintz  tacked  upon  them.  These  were  put  in 
opposite  corners,  and  behind  each  was  a  table,  with  basin 
and  pitcher,  soap  and  towels.  There  had  been  several  cases 
of  heart-breaking,  and  one  or  two  of  sulking,  when  children 
had  been  sent  home,  as  they  expressed  it  to  "  clean  their- 
selves  ; "  so  now,  instead  of  being  sent  home,  they  were  con- 
ducted to  the  sheltering  screen,  and  given  to  understand 
that  if  they  could  not  emerge  with  spotless  faces  and  hands, 
then,  indeed,  there  was  no  appeal,  they  "  must  go  !  " 

"  There's  entirely  too  much  Ancient  Roman  in  your  com- 
position, my  dear,"  Julia  had  said  to  Muriel,  when  this  sub- 
ject was  under  discussion  ;  "  just  consider — I  don't  suppose 
that  half  the  poor  little  sinners  have  any  place  where  they 
can  wash  their  hands  and  faces,  except  the  drinking-foun- 
tains,  and  I  don't  believe  you'd  make  your  own  face  '  per- 
fectly clean,'  with  nothing  but  a  drinking-fountain,  and  not 
even  a  towel,  much  less  a  wash-rag  !  " 

"  Perhaps  I  wouldn't,"  said  Muriel,  laughing,  but  in- 
wardly wincing  a  little  under  the  "  Ancient  Roman  "  accusa- 


296  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

tion,  because  she  knew  it  was  deserved  ;  "  so  we  will  have  the 
screens  and  the  wash-basins,  and  I'll  even  go  further — I 
will  give  each  of  them  two  towels,  and  a  wash-rag,  and  a  large 
cake  of  soap,  and  see  what  comes  of  it.  Aunt  Sally  was 
bemoaning  her  hard  lot  last  night,  because,  she  says,  she 
doesn't  have  a  quarter  enough  to  do.  I've  Caught  her 
twice  lately,  through  her  own  inadvertence,  when  she's  been 
'round  at  the  flat  making  ginger-bread  for 'her  children '; 
so  I  shall  buy  a  piece  of  huckaback,  with  malice  prepense, 
and  give  her  eighty  towels  and  forty  wash-rags  to  hem  !  " 

If  there  had  been  a  little  spice  of  mischief  in  Muriel's 
voice  and  manner  when  she  took  the  huckaback  to  Aunt 
Sally,  and  gave  the  "  order,"  it  was  entirely  thrown  away. 
Miss  Bowne  produced  her  shears  at  once,  with  a  lively 
sense  of  satisfaction — a  feeling  that  she  was  not  living  in 
vain,  and  all  she  said  was  : 

"  It's  a  very  good  idea,  my  dear — of  course,  I  suppose 
about  half  of  them  will  lose  the  towels  and  soap,  and  half 
of  the  other  half  will  sell  them  or  pawn  them  for  a  few  cents, 
but  if  only  a  quarter  of  them  put  the  soap  to  its  proper  use, 
it  will  have  been  worth  while,  but  you've  only  about  an 
eighth  as  much  huckaback  here  as  you'll  need  ;  there's  not 
more  than  twelve  yards  in  this  piece.  You'd  better  get  at 
least  six  more  pieces  to-morrow  !  " 

"  I  will,"  said  Muriel;  "  I  never  thought  to  ask  how  many 
yards  there  were.  '  A  piece '  of  any  thing  like  that  always 
sounds  like  such  a  great  deal." 

"  That's  no  way  to  shop,"  said  Aunt  Sally,  severely;  "  no 
way  at  all !  You  should  always  know  just  exactly  what 
you're  buying,  and  how  much  you're  paying  for  it.  I 
thought  you  were  more  business-like  than  that,  Muriel  !  " 

"So  did  I,"  said  Muriel,  meekly.  "  But  I'll  never  do  sd 
any  more,  Aunt  Sally.  You  know  that  one  of  the  aims  of 
my  existence  is  to  be  business-like  !  " 


WA  YS  AND  MEAN'.  *97 

"  And  it's  a  very  good  aim  to  have,  if  it's  an  aim,  and  not 
the  aim,"  replied  Aunt  Sally,  as  she  drew  threads  and  cut 
off  her  towels  with  a  rapidity  which  made  Muriel  suggest 
that  perhaps  she  had  better  send  for  the  other  six  pieces  of 
huckaback  that  afternoon. 

"  That  is  just  the  trouble,"  said  Muriel,  in  the  perplexed 
tone  which  was  so  frequent  with  her.  "  It  is  so  hard  to 
keep  an  aim  from  becoming  the  aim,  aunty — to  keep  one- 
self from  growing  lop-sided  !  And  I  do  not  suppose  even 
a  thing  which  is  very  good  in  itself  ought  to  be  allowed  to 
swallow  up  every  thing  else,  do  you  ?  " 

"  No,  my  dear,  I  don't ;  and  I'm  very  glad  you  asked  me 
the  question,  for  I  have  something  on  my  mind  I've  been 
wanting  to  say  to  you  for  some  time.  I've  heard  you  say 
that  when  you  first  left  school,  you  meant  to  keep  up  cer- 
tain of  your  studies,  and  especially  your  music  and  draw- 
ing, but  I  don't  see  the  least  sign  of  it !  You  may  think  you 
have  not  time,  but  if  you'll  excuse  me  for  saying  so,  you 
have!  I  don't  suppose  you  do  more  light  reading  than 
most  g'rls  of  your  age  do,  and  so  far  as  I  am  any  judge,  all 
the  books  you  buy  and  take  from  the  library  are  nice,  bright, 
wholesome  things,  with  no  harm  in  them  intrinsically.  But 
all  the  same,  to  my  way  of  thinking,  they  come  under  the 
head  of  trash,  for  they  fritter  away  your  time,  and  leave 
you  nothing  to  show  for  it.  Now  don't  misunderstand  me, 
dear,  and  think  I  would  like  you  to  be  lop-sided  the  other 
way,  for  I  wouldn't  at  all.  We  all  need  to  be  entertained 
as  much  as  we  need  to  be  fed  ;  but  over-entertaining  is  just 
as  bad  as  over-feeding,  if  not  worse.  Now  I  wish  you'd 
tell  me,  honestly,  if  you  think  I'm  meddling,  and  would 
rather  I'd  not  go  on  ?  I've  not  half  finished  yet  !  " 

Muriel  drew  a  stool  to  the  old  lady's  feet,  sat  down  on  it, 
and  looked  up  in  the  earnest  face  : 

"  Aunt  Sally,"  she  said,  with  equal  earnestness,  "  what  do 


«98  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

you  take  me  for?  When  you  give  me  a  nice,  motherly 
scolding  like  this,  I  feel  as  if  I  really  belonged  to  somebody. 
Please  to  go  on  and  say  every  single  thing  that  is  on  your 
mind.  I  deserve  it  all,  and  a  great  deal  more." 

"  Then  I  hope  you'll  profit  by  it  !  "  said  Aunt  Sally, 
briskly,  but  following  the  remark  up  with  a  kiss,  which  she 
rarely  vouchsafed  any  body,  voluntarily.  "  And  if  you  don't 
like  it,  you  can  stop  me  next  time  I  begin.  What  I  was 
going  to  say  was,  that  when  you  come  home  tired,  and  don't 
feel  like  doing  any  thing  special,  if  you'd  really  rest  for  half 
an  hour — lie  down  and  shut  your  eyes,  and  tell  Margery  or 
me  to  call  you,  if  you  should  fall  asleep,  when  the  time's  up, 
you'd  be  nicely  freshened  up,  and  ready  to  take  hold  of 
something  worth  while  ;  but  you  drop  into  an  easy-chair 
and  pick  up  a  book,  or  one  of  these  everlasting  magazines 
that  are  always  cheating  people  out  of  their  spare  time 
nowadays,  and  you  don't  half-read,  nor  half-rest,  and  per- 
haps a  whole  hour  will  go  off  in  that  way,  just  because  you 
think  it  will  soon  be  lunch  time,  or  dinner  time,  or  some- 
thing, and  it  isn't  worth  while  to  go  at  any  thing  special. 
But  it  is  !  I  hardly  ever  see,  now,  something  mother  and  I 
always  used  to  have  on  hand  that  we  called  our  '  pick-up 
work  ' — something  all  ready  to  go  on  with,  whenever  we 
happened  on  a  few  spare  minutes  or  an  odd  half-hour. 
And  by  keeping  things  like  mending,  and  small  makings, 
for  that,  we  left  ourselves  a  great  deal  more  of  our  solid 
time,  such  as  a  long  afternoon  or  evening,  free  for  things 
that  couldn't  just  be  picked  up  and  laid  down  again  in  a 
few  minutes.  I  do  believe  that  nobody  ever  yet  accom- 
plished any  thing  much,  who  hadn't  this  faculty  of  using 
odd  bits  of  time,  just  as  nobody  ever  saved  much  money, 
who  thought  five  cents  here  and  ten  there  didn't  matter. 
Now  just  think — we're  alone  together  here,  at  least  half 
our  evenings,  and  with  the  good  light  you  always  have, 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  299 

you  could  draw  well  enough,  I  should  think — couldn't 
you  ?" 

"  Yes,  ma'am  !     Perfectly  well !  " 

"  Very  well,  then — I  don't  see  why  you  don't  do  it !  Now 
tell  me,  honestly,  how  many  novels  and  stories  have  you 
read  since  I've  been  here,  besides  what  have  been  in  the 
magazines — that  is,  if  you  can  remember,  for  I  should  think 
you'd  have  them  all  mixed  up  in  a  tangle  like  odd  threads 
of  silk." 

"  Aunt  Sally,  you  are  merciless  !  Let  me  see — I  was 
reading,  '  The  Lady  of  the  Aroostook  '  when  you  came,  for 
I  remember  I  couldn't  help  reading  aloud  the  most  delight- 
ful places,  and  you  laughed  at  them  just  as  much  as  I  did  ! 
That  happened  to  be  the  first  of  Howells's  stories — for  one 
can  hardly  call  them  novels — which  I  had  read,  and  it 
tickled  me  so  that  I  went  straight  on  with  him,  and  read 
'Their  Wedding  Journey,'  and  'A  Chance  Acquaintance,' 
and  '  The  Undiscovered  Country  ' — that  makes  four." 

"  There  was  one  more  ;  I  saw  it  on  the  table  here  ;  what 
was  it  ?  Oh,  '  A  Modern  Instance,'  wasn't  it  ?  " 

"  Yes,  but  that  does  not  count,  for  I  only  began  it — when 
I  came  to  where  that  horrible  girl  runs  after  the  horribler 
man,  and  makes  him  marry  her,  I  threw  it  as  far  as  I  dared 
throw  a  library  book  in  a  new  binding,  and  didn't  look  at  it 
again.  And  I  began  one  more  of  his  and  didn't  finish  it. 
I  forget  even  its  name,  but  it  is  one  in  which  he  under- 
takes to  prove  that  the  young  woman — the  young  gentle- 
woman— of  the  present  day  has  but  two  resources,  if  she 
becomes  penniless,  making  bonnets  for  servant  girls,  and 
marrying  !  " 

"  See  here,  you  are  not  sticking  to  the  point !  Four, 
you'd  counted.  Now  go  on  ;  you  can  criticize  them  after 
we've  finished  counting,  if  you  like." 

4<  Thank  you  !   Well,  then — I  can't  remember  the  order  in 


3°°  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

which  they  came,  but  that's  no  matter.  Uncle  Arthur 
brought  me  a  lovely  story  called  .'  The  Rose  Garden/  by 
Miss  Peard  ;  he  said  he  had  seldom  been  so  pleased  with  a 
story,  and  somehow,  though  we  are  so  different,  I  always 
like  the  books  he  likes.  So  that  led  me  on  just  as  the 
'  Lady  '  did,  and  I  read  '  Cartouche  ' — most  of  it  aloud  to 
you  and  Miss  Post,  Miss  Bowne — and  '  Mother  Molly,'  and 
'  Unawares,'  that  makes  eight.  And  '  Rudder  Grange  '  is 
nine  ;  and  '  One  Summer  '  is  ten  ;  but  that  is  a  very,  very 
small  one  !  I  believe  that's  all." 

"I  should  hope  it  might  be  !  I've  been  here  just  about 
two  months,  so  that's  a  little  over  one  a  week.  And  there's 
your  marker  in  '  The  Making  of  England,'  which  you  were 
going  to  read  aloud  to  Miss  Post  and  me  evenings,  just 
where  it  was  when  I  came,  if  I'm  not  very  much  mistaken  !  " 

"You  are  not,  you  cruel  woman.  I  only  wish  you  were  ! 
But,  really,  I'm  very  much  obliged  to  you,  aunty.  '  So  very 
much  obliged,'  as  Margery  tells  me  I  said  to  the  dentist  who 
pulled  out  a  small  aching  tooth  of  mine  some  fifteen  years 
ago.  I  had  no  idea  of  my  fiction-inebriated  condition,  and 
I  was  under  the  impression  that  I  had  no  spare  time  at 
all.  Oh,  aunty  !  it  is  dreadfully  hard  to  be  good  all  round, 
isn't  it  ? " 

"  Yes,  dear,  it  is  ;  there's  no  doubt  of  that,  and  I  often 
think  we'd  have  a  right  to  be  discouraged  if  it  wasn't  for 
such  promises  as  '  He  giveth  more  grace,'  '  My  grace  is  suf- 
ficient for  thee,'  and  for  knowing  that  we  only  have  to  take 
one  day  at  a  time.  And,  Muriel,  when  there's  an  open 
mind,  ready  and  willing  to  take  such  things  as  I've  just  said 
to  you,  things  that  many  a  girl  of  your  age  would  resent,  or 
else  laugh  at,  it  seems  to  me  it's  half  the  battle." 

It  certainly  was  in  this  case.  Muriel  took  a  very  earnest 
and  prayerful  resolution  to  save  instead  of  squandering 
time,  and  was  not  long  in  finding  the  comfort  of  it,  and  in 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  3O1 

discovering  that  the  growth  of  her  charitable  enterprises 
and  the  undertaking  of  new  and  more  extended  ones  were 
not  incompatible  with  a  fair  amount  of  leisure  for  other 
pursuits. 

The  invitation  to  Dovedale  was  given,  and  very  grate- 
fully received,  but  she  could  not  convince  herself  at  once 
that  she  was  at  liberty  to  accept  it,  and  only  her  reliance 
upon  Aunt  Sally's  clear  judgment  induced  her  to  do  so. 
Aunt  Sally  knew  just  how  beneficial  to  a  nature  like  Muriel's 
the  busy,  cheerful  life  of  a  large  family  would  be,  with  what 
renewed  strength  and  freshness  she  would  take  up  again  her 
o«rn  burden  after  having  her  thoughts  diverted  from  it  fora 
little  while. 

And  there  was  another  reason,  which  the  old  lady  would 
not  formulate,  even  in  her  own  mind.  Neil  Duncan  had  of 
late  become  a  very  frequent  visitor  in  Muriel's  home,  and 
the  stiffness,  almost  amounting  to  ungraciousness,  which 
had  characterized  his  manner  toward  her  in  the  beginning 
of  their  acquaintance  had  entirely  disappeared.  Aunt 
Sally,  in  what  she  afterward  regarded  as  her  "  heathen  blind- 
ness," had  taken  an  early  opportunity  to  rate  him  soundly 
for  his  want  of  "  manners,"  and  to  represent  to  him  how 
valuable  their  friendship  might  be  to  both  of  them,  if  he 
would  only  show  himself  friendly. 

"  But,  Miss  Bowne,"  he  remonstrated,  "  just  look  at  it 
impartially  !  Here  I  am  a  penniless  clerk  on  a  nominal 
salary,  without  even  good  clothes,  and  here  Miss  Douglas 
is,  a  sort  of  a  millionairess.  Yes,  I  know  it  isn't  really  mil- 
lions, but  it  is  from  my  standpoint,  and  if  I  were  to  go  mak- 
ing myself  very  friendly,  as  you  call  it,  she  would  naturally 
think  but  one  thing,  that  I  had  designs  upon  her  hand  for 
the  sake  of  the  fortune  in  it.  It  isn't  so  very  long  since 
you  were  commending  the  wisdom  which  keeps  me  from 
attempting  to  go  into  '  society,'  and  even  from  visiting 


302  W 'A  YS  AND  MEANS. 

much  among  nice  girls  who  might  shake  my  resolution  not 
to  fall  in  love  with  any  body  until  there  is  at  least  a  remote 
chance  of  my  being  able  to  marry  her,  for  I  don't  mean 
always  to  be  nothing  but  an  eight  hundred  dollar  clerk,  you 
know,  and  I  begin  to  see  a  prospect  of  a  rise  both  in  salary 
and  position.  And  now  here  you  are,  actually  berating  me 
for  not  being  '  more  friendly  '  with  a  young  woman  who, 
while  she  is  not  strikingly  beautiful,  is  certainly  not  wholly 
unattractive,  and  who  is  so  painfully  rich  by  comparison, 
that  if  I  were  to  fall  madly  in  love  with  her  to-morrow  she 
should  never  know  it  !" 

"  I  declare  !  "  said  Aunt  Sally,  who  had  with  difficulty 
kept  herself  from  interrupting  him,  "for  a  person  with  so 
much  sense,  you're  too  foolish  for  any  thing  !  I  did  hope 
you,  at  any  rate,  were  above  this  penny-dreadful  romance 
idea  that  a  man  and  a  woman  can't  be  friends  without  one 
or  the  other  falling  in  love,  as  you  call  it.  Here's  this  girl 
— nice,  sensible,  warm-hearted,  as  free  from  nonsense  of 
that  sort  as  if  she  were  eighty,  for  she'd  never  believe,  I'm 
very  sure,  that  a  man  loved  her  until  he  told  her  so  in  so 
many  plain  words.  She's  trying  to  use  her  money  for  the 
good  of  other  people  ;  she's  thankful  for  every  suggestion, 
for  every  •  opportunity,'  as  she  calls  it.  And  here  you  are, 
with  just  exactly  the  experience  and  knowledge  that  would 
help  her,  and  just  because  of  this  foolishness  you  can't  be 
friends.  I  do  believe,"  and  she  pounced  round  upon  him 
with  sudden  indignation,  "  that  what  you're  really  afraid  of 
is  that  she  will  fall  in  love  with  you." 

He  colored  deeply,  and  a  look  of  such  extreme  indigna- 
tion swept  over  his  face  that  Aunt  Sally  was  half  frightened, 
but  only  half. 

"  I  don't  think  I  should  submit  quietly  to  having  such  a 
thing  as  that  said  to  me  by  any  one  but  you,  Miss 
Bowne,"  he  said  presently,  "  and  even  to  you  I  must 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  303 

say  that  I  hope  you  will  never  say  any  thing  like  it 
again." 

"  I  don't  suppose  I  ought  to  have  said  it,"  admitted  Aunt 
Sally,  not  in  the  least  penitentially,  but  in  a  spirit  of  fair- 
ness and  candor,  "but  it  struck  me  suddenly,  and  I  spoke 
before  I  thought.  But  I  suppose  we're  all  of  us  more  or 
less  welcome  to  our  opinions,  and  if  two  and  two  don't  make 
four  they  certainly  don't  ever  make  any  less  !" 

"  I  will  not  be  so  utterly  misjudged,"  he  said,  hotly.  He 
had  inherited  more  than  his  blue  eyes  and  his  Christian 
name  from  that  remote  Irish  ancestor  of  his,  and  Aunt 
Sally  had  overtaxed  his  patience  and  almost  his  courtesy. 
"  You  are  assuming  the  responsibility,"  he  added,  more 
quietly,  "  so  I  accept  your  dictum  in  the  matter.  Perhaps 
I  am  foolish.  I  know  I  am  much  too  self-conscious.  I  will 
be  as  '  friendly '  with  Miss  Douglas,  if  she  will  permit  me 
to  be,  as  if  she  had  not  a  cent.  How  shall  I  begin,  Miss 
Bowne  ?  By  inviting  myself  to  dinner  ?" 

He  was  laughing  now,  by  one  of  those  quick  changes  of 
mood  which  characterized  him.  Aunt  Sally  had  an  uncom- 
fortable consciousness  that  a  victory  may  be  a  good  deal 
like  a  white  elephant.  But  she  resembled  the  Gallant  Cap- 
tain of  the  Pinafore  in  at  least  one  respect  :  "  In  the 
stiff est  sort  of  gale  she  was  never  known  to  quail."  So  she 
merely  said,  calmly  : 

"  I'm  glad  you've  come  to  your  senses  at  last,  but  don't 
come  out  on  the  other  side  of  them.  What  Miss  Douglas 
wants  of  you  is,  a  civil  answer  to  a  civil  question,  and  not  to 
be  treated  as  if  you  had  a  patent  on  charity,  and  she'd  bet- 
ter be  careful  how  sire  infringed  upon  it  ! " 

He  laughed  heartily,  now,  with  good-humor  quite  re- 
stored. 

"  Have  I  really  given  her  that  impression  ?  "  he  said.  "  I 
assure  you  I  didn't  mean  to  !  I  suppose,  since  you  will 


3°4  IV A  YS  AND  MEANS. 

have  me  dissect  myself  for  your  benefit,  Miss  Bowne,  that 
I  thought  her  charitable  phase  was  merely  a  phase  ;  and 
beside,  you  know,  or  ought  to  know,  my  horror  of  being 
considered  a  Philantrophist — spelt  with  a  capital  P.  It  is 
very  difficult  not  to  be  more  charitable  and  amiable  to  oneself 
than  to  any  one  else  !  Don't  you  find  it  so  ?  I  know  you 
do,  though  you  may  not  like  to  admit  it.  I  suppose  I 
ought  to  be  willing  to  let  Miss  Douglas  help  some  of  the 
people  whom  I'd  like  to  help  and  can't,  but  I  am  afraid  I 
am  not  !  " 

"  Then  it  will  be  all  the  more  credit  to  you  if  you  do  let 
her  help  them,  and  help  her  to  do  it  ! " 

"  Miss  Bowne,  are  you  aware  that  you  are  advocating  the 
doctrine  of  works  of  supererogation  ?  If  I  really  thought 
it  would  be  '  credited  '  to  me,  as  a  balance  to  certain  dis- 
credits whereof  I  am  conscious,  my  last  hesitation  would 
vanish." 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

UNSATISFACTORY. 

"  Love  comes  to  some  with  smiling  eyes, 

And  comes  with  tears  to  some  ; 
For  some  Love  sings,  for  some  Love  sighs 
For  some  Love's  lips  are  dumb." 

— PAKENHAM  BEATTY. 

WHATEVER  the  real  cause  for  the  vanishing  might 
have  been,  there  was  certainly,  after  this  engage- 
ment with  Aunt  Sally,  no  more  visible  hesitation  on  Neil 
Duncan's  part  about  being  "  friendly  "  with  Muriel.  It  is 
just  possible  that  the  shaft  which  really  flew  home  was  the 
accusation  which  had  so  stung  him,  and  of  which  Aunt 
Sally  heartily  repented,  from  all  points  of  view,  as  soon  as 
she  was  left  alone. 

"  For  even  if  it's  as  true  as  preaching,"  she  said  to  herself, 
"and  I'm  not  prepared  to  say  that  it  isn't,  either — I'd  no 
business  to  say  it.  I'm  forever  making  myself  think  of  that 
verse  in  the  Psalm — '  Be  ye  not  like  to  horse  and  mule, 
which  have  no  understanding,  whose  mouths  must  be  held, 
with  bit  and  bridle,  lest  they  fall  upon  thee  ' — only  I've 
never  yet  been  able  to  hold  on  to  the  bit  and  bridle  as  I 
should  !  Well,  if  I've  done  mischief,  all  I  can  do  now  is  to 
look  out  that  it  doesn't  spread,  if  I  can  help  it,  and  to  try 
not  to  do  any  more  !  " 

But  for  awhile  it  certainly  did  not  appear  that  any  mis- 
chief was  done.  A  very  frank  and  pleasant  friendship 


3°6  WA  YS  AND  MEANS, 

seemed  to  be  growing  up  between  these  two  people,  who,  be- 
fore they  met,  had  both  thought  a  good  deal  upon  the 
same  subject — a  subject  to  which  both  disliked  to  give  the 
name  "charity,"  from  the  philological  degeneracy  of  that 
much  abused  word.  Neil  Duncan  had  a  wrong-headed  pre- 
judice against  nearly  all  charitable  organizations,  which  was 
not  beneficial  to  Muriel,  who  had  unconsciously  imbibed 
a  similar  prejudice  from  her  grandfather's  talk  upon  the 
subject.  It  was  this  which  had  held  her  aloof  from  such 
organizations,  and  made  her  try  to  devise  ways  of  helping 
which  should  have  no  tendency  to  degrade  and  humiliate 
the  helped.  Neither  of  them  discerned  the  truth,  that 
many  of  the  applicants  for  public  charity,  if  not  most  of 
them,  have  humiliated  themselves  before  any  such  applica- 
tion is  made,  by  degraded  lives,  and  lost  opportunities,  and 
that  what  would  seem  to  an  independent  spirit  galling  in 
the  extreme,  has  no  effect  whatever  upon  them,  and  the 
other  truth,  that  any  law  or  public  measure  must  consult, 
not  the  convenience  of  exceptional  cases,  but  "  the  greatest 
good  of  the  greatest  number." 

Neil  Duncan  had  to  a  certain  degree  lost  the  first  en- 
thusiasm, and  faith  in  immediate  results,  which  still  sus- 
tained Muriel,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  he  had  gained  a 
better,  a  more  permanently  encouraging  faith.  He  saw 
that  much  which  appeared  to  be  wasted  and  ineffectual, 
worked  quietly,  and  often  quite  unsuspected,  toward  at  least 
a  small  degree  of  good  ;  that  the  harvest  often  came  in 
long  after  there  was  much  reason  to  think  that  the  seed 
had  died  in  the  ground.  When  Muriel's  faith  began  to 
be  shaken  by  disappointments  and  apparent  failures,  his 
encouraged  her  to  keep  on  ;  at  first,  merely  because  she 
believed  what  he  told  her,  and  afterward  because,  by 
slow  degrees,  proofs  of  what  he  asserted  began  to  reveal 
themselves  to  her.  When  the  inhabitants  of  "  the  Row  " 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  307 

grumbled  at  their  accommodations  at  Hartswell,  and  grum- 
bled again  at  the  new  homes  which  Muriel  had  regarded 
with  such  pride  and  pleasure,  and  confidence  in  their  effect 
upon  her  tenants,  she  was  for  awhile  deeply  disheartened, 
and  inclined  to  abate  her  efforts;  but  his  earnest  belief  that, 
under  the  grumbling,  was  not  only  an  increased  comfort,  but 
a  carefully  concealed  gratitude,  and  that,  even  if  there 
were  not,  she  had  no  right  to  doubt  the  ultimate  result  of 
any  honest  effort,  gave  her  the  renewed  courage  without 
which  she  would  no  doubt  have  kept  on,  but  which  made 
keeping  on  so  much  more  easy.  And  Aunt  Sally,  watching 
keenly,  yet  without  appearing  to  watch,  the  progress  of  this 
friendship,  for  which  she  certainly  was  responsible,  saw  no 
reason,  as  yet,  to  do  any  thing  but  congratulate  herself  and 
them. 

Muriel's  liking  for  Marion  Raymond  steadily  increased,  as 
did  her  intimacy  with  May  and  Miss  Forsythe,  and  though 
the  engrossing  occupation  of  all  three  of  her  friends  made 
very  frequent  meetings  with  them  difficult  of  accomplish- 
ment, she  soon  had  no  doubt  of  their  regard  for  her,  and 
pleasure,  in  being  with  her,  when  it  was  possible,  and 
they  all  looked  forward  with  very  great  pleasure  to  the 
meeting,  and  the  leisure  to  enjoy  each  other,  at  Dove- 
dale. 

A  plan  which  includes  so  many  people  is  very  apt  to 
"  fall  through  "  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  before  it's  ac- 
complishment, but  this  one,  to  all  outward  seeming,  at 
least,  was  destined  to  be  fulfilled.  The  month  of  July  had 
been  named,  because  of  the  several  vacations  ;  neither 
Marion  nor  Dick  would  be  free  before  the  latter  part  of 
June,  and  Alice's  engagements  ran  nearly  to  the  same  time, 
as  did  May's  term  at  the  school  in  which  she  taught.  Miss 
Forsythe's  vacation  was  to  be  the  latter  half  of  that  month, 
but  she  was  anxious  that  May  should  not  wait  for  her,  but 


308  W A  YS  AND  MEANS. 

should  go  to  Dovedale  early  in  July,  when  Aunt  Sally  and 
Muriel  went. 

"  And  leave  you  all  alone  for  ten  days  or  two  weeks  ?  ' 
said  May,  indignantly,  "why,  aunty  !  What  do  you  take  me 
for?" 

"  For  a  tired  girl,  in  need  of  all  the  rest  and  country  air 
that  she  can  find,"  replied  Miss  Forsythe,  "  and  I  should 
not  be  alone  ;  I  should  borrow  Miss  Post !  " 

"  Miss  Post  would  not  lend  herself  to  any  such  nefarious 
scheme,"  said  May,  and  there  the  matter  dropped,  for  the 
time  being.  Miss  Forsythe  did  not  intend,  however,  that  it 
should  remain  there,  and  took  an  early  opportunity  to  see 
Muriel,  and  open  her  negotiation  for  the ''loan  "of  Miss 
Post,  and,  of  course,  her  little  maid,  for  she  was  entirely 
blind,  now,  and  more  helpless  than  she  had  expected  to  be. 
Muriel  hesitated  in  a  manner  which  surprised  Miss  Forsythe. 
She  began  to  speak  twice,  and  immediately  appeared  to 
change  her  mind  as  to  the  construction  of  her  sentence  ;  but 
at  last  she  said  : 

"  Dear  Miss  Agnes,  I  don't  seem  to  find  the  right  words 
for  what  I  wish  to  say,  so  you  must  only  listen  to  my  mean- 
ing !  Why  can't  you  just  close  the  house,  and  come  here,  on  a 
visit  to  Miss  Post,  for  the  ten  days  or  two  weeks  before  you 
go  to  Dovedale  ?  Indeed,  I  think  you  would,  if  you  knew 
how  happy  it  would  make  me,  and  then,  I  am  nearly  sure, 
we  could  persuade  May  to  go  with  Aunt  Sally  and  me  !  " 

Her  eager,  loving  face,  and  the  warm  hand-clasp  which 
accompanied  her  words,  gave  them  all  the  weight  which  she 
seemed  to  think  they  lacked.  Miss  Forsythe  had  no 
feeling  which  made  her  desire  to  be  "coaxed,"  and  she  saw 
at  once  the  reasonableness  of  Muriel's  suggestion  about 
May,  so  she  accepted  the  invitation  with  as  much  affection 
as,  had  the  case  been  reversed,  she  would  have  given  it  with, 
and  May,  under  a  triple  attack,  from  her  aunt,  Aunt  Sally 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  309 

and  Muriel,  yielded,  and  began  her  preparations  to  go  early 
in  July. 

Muriel  was  not  content  that  the  building  of  the  row  of 
new  houses  should  go  on  without  her  own  frequent  super- 
vision, and  here,  again,  she  often  consulted  Neil  Duncan, 
for  the  space  which  she  could  command  for  each  house  was 
small,  and  she  was  anxious  to  make  the  most  of  it.  She 
had  employed  an  architect  to  draw  the  main  plan,  but  in 
the  smaller  particulars,  and  more  especially  about  the  center 
house,  which  was  to  contain  cooking  and  other  arrange- 
ments for  the  comfort  and  convenience  of  all  the  dwellers 
in  the  row,  she  wished  to  direct  the  building  herself.  She 
hoped  to  have  every  thing  so  well  advanced  by  the  first  of 
July  as  to  be  able  to  go  away  with  an  easy  mind,  for  the 
journey  to  Dovedale  was  not  a  formidable  one,  and  she  ex- 
pected to  return  to  the  field  of  action  for  a  day,  at  least  once 
during  the  visit.  Miss  Prudence  Harley  proved  a  valuable 
adviser  concerning  the  houses,  and  to  Muriel's  great  joy, 
consented  to  occupy  the  upper  rooms  of  the  center  house 
and  superintend  the  establishment  ;  for  when  Muriel  asked 
her  to  take  the  post  it  was  with  the  assurance  that  she 
should  have  all  the  help  in  the  way  of  servants  that  she 
wished. 

"  If  I  can  find  one  strong,  willing  girl  who  will  do  as 
she's  told,  and  a  good,  stout  boy  to  run  errands  and  mind 
the  fires,  I'll  not  ask  any  thing  more,"  said  Miss  Prudence, 
"  for  too  much  help  is  to  the  full  as  much  trouble  as  too 
little — more,  I  think.  And  I  shall  see  to  it  that  the  women 
who  come  there  to  wash  and  iron  and  bake  for  themselves 
clear  up  after  themselves  ;  that  will  be  only  fair." 

Lizzy  and  Robert  Boyce  were  established  in  the  two 
small  rooms  before  Muriel  went  away,  and  Muriel  was  as 
much  fascinated  as  May  was  with  Lizzy's  beauty.  She  was 
a  warm-hearted,  feather-headed  little  thing,  and  Muriel 


310  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

could  not  help  thinking  that  her  mother's  stern,  repressive 
manner  had  been  an  injury  to  her.  It  was  very  encourag- 
ing to  see  her  interest  in  and  pity  for  Miss  Post,  and  they 
were  excellent  friends  after  one  evening  together. 

"  I'll  coax  her  out  for  a  walk  every  pleasant  evening,  Miss 
Douglas,"  said  Lizzy,  earnestly,  the  next  day,  "  and  tell  her 
just  how  every  thing  looks,  and  take  her  where  there's  flowers 
to  smell  and  fountains  to  hear.  It  must  be  awful  to  be 
blind,  and  she's  just  as  sweet  and  pleasant  and  interested 
in  every  thing  as  if  she  could  see.  Oh,  you  needn't  fear 
but  I'll  be  good  to  her  !  I  would,  even  if  she  wasn't  so 
lovely  to  me  !  " 

Muriel  was  very  much  amused  to  see  how  Margery  was 
beguiled  by  the  little  thing's  pretty  face  and  easy,  friendly 
manner.  The  old  Scotchwoman  had  evidently  prepared 
herself  to  be  very  dignified  and  not  a  little  instructive,  for 
she  had  heard  about  Lizzy's  "  light-headedness  "  from  sev- 
eral of  the  women  in  the  Row,  in  her  goings  and  comings 
with  Muriel,  but  the  beginning  of  her  disarming  was  Lizzy's 
neatness  in  all  her  "  ways  "  and  her  pride  in  the  pretty  little 
room,  to  which  Muriel  had  added  several  attractions — two 
or  three  pictures,  a  glass  bowl  for  flowers  and  a  small  shelf 
of  books. 

"  It  would  be  a  poor  story  if  I  didn't  do  all  Miss  Doug- 
las wishes,  mother,"  Margery  heard  Lizzy  say,  as  they  were 
seeing  Mrs.  Boyce  and  "  Frederick  "  off  on  the  day  when 
the  party  from  the  Row  went  to  Hartswell,  "  after  all  she's 
put  in  my  room.  I  just  wish  you'd  had  time  to  come  and 
see  it.  She  couldn't  have  done  any  more  for  one  of  her 
own  folks." 

This  innocent  speech  made  all  the  greater  impression  by 
contrast  with  the  coolness  manifested  by  so  many  of  Muriel's 
beneficiaries,  and  when  'Lizzy  unconsciously  followed  up 
her  advantage  by  sounding  Miss  Forsythe's  praises  all  the 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  311 

way  home,  Margery's  conquest  was  complete,  and  she  said 
to  Muriel  the  next  morning-  : 

"  I'm  thinking  it  was  jealousy  made  them  talk  of  that 
little  girl  as  they  did.  I've  seen  no  harm  in  her  so  far,  and, 
on  the  contrary,  a  gread  deal  of  good,  and  I  doubt  the 
mother  has  been  too  stern  and  strict  with  her.  She's  a  hard- 
looking  woman  !  " 

This,  from  Margery,  amused  Muriel  not  a  little,  but  she 
did  all  in  her  power  to  encourage  the  kindly  feeling  toward 
Lizzy,  hoping  much  for  the  effect  upon  the  child's  mind 
and  character  which  this  visit  might  have. 

Robert's  quiet,  orderly  ways,  and  readiness  to  help 
Rogers  in  the  short  time  which  he  spent  at  the  house  every 
day,  gave  Muriel  the  assurance  that  he  would  be  kindly 
cared  for. 

He  was  delighted  with  the  little  garden,  and  disposed  to 
do  too  much  rather  than  too  little  at  it,  and  Muriel  was  very 
glad  when  Lizzy  beguiled  Miss  Post  out  to  "  see,"  through 
her  eyes,  how  nicely  he  was  weeding  the  walks  and  trimming 
the  old-fashioned  box  borders,  and  Miss  Post  invited  him 
to  come  whenever  he  felt  like  it  and  sit  with  his  sister  in  her 
parlor.  Miss  Post  had  already  "  brightened  up  "  wonder- 
fully under  Lizzy's  care  when  Aunt  Sally  and  Muriel  went 
away,  and  Margery  had  been  heard — actually  heard — to 
laugh!  Surely,  even  she  would  not  call  the  house  "dour" 
now. 

Muriel  was  trying  to  be  patient  about  finding  "oppor- 
tunities "  to  fill  some  more  of  those  vacant  rooms.  She  had 
no  wish  to  introduce  a  false  note  into  the  pleasant  chord 
which  now  sounded  through  the  house,  and  she  was  learn- 
ing a  little  of  that  "  long  patience"  which  is  necessary  for 
the  ripening  of  many  fruits  besides  "  the  precious  fruits  of 
the  earth." 

She  had  told  Neal  Duncan  her  wishes  about  filling  most  of 


312  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

the  rooms,  for  she  had  no  ultra  ideas  which  would  lead  her  to 
crowd  herself  out,  and  she  meant  always  to  have  at  least 
two  vacant  rooms  at  her  disposal  for  what  Margery  called 
"  her  own  company."  Her  object  in  telling  him  was  sim- 
ply to  ask  him,  should  he  meet  with  any  of  the  cases  in 
which  a  stay  of  a  few  days  or  weeks,  during  the  heat  of  the 
summer,  would  be  a  blessing  to  the  guest  and  do  no  harm 
to  those  already  there,  to  let  her  know  promptly,  that  she 
might  give  the  invitation.  He  promised  to  do  so,  and  then 
after  a  keen,  curious  glance  at  her  face,  which  she  did  not 
see  by  reason  of  a  piece  of  "  pick-up  work  "  with  which  she 
was  occupied,  he  said  : 

"  Do  you  know,  Miss  Douglas,  that  in  spite  of  your 
matter-of-fact  manner  of  doing  it,  you  are  doing  a  very 
strange  and  utterly  unconventional  thing  ? " 

"  Then  Miss  Thackeray  must  be  mistaken,"  said  Muriel, 
smiling,  "  when  she  says  the  chief  difference  between  men 
and  women  is  that  men  do  foolish  things  sensibly  and 
women  do  sensible  things  foolishly." 

"  That  is  merely  a  glittering  generality;  she  would  not  be 
able  to  prove  it,  though  it  has  a  clever  sound.  But  I  am 
not  to  be  so  easily  diverted  from  the  subject  in  hand.  I  am 
wondering  if  you  realize  how  short  the  time  will  be  before 
your  best  acquaintances  begin  to  call  you  'that  very  pecu- 
liar Miss  Douglas.'  Shall  you  mind  it  very  much,  do  you 
think  ? " 

"  Yes,"  said  Muriel,  slowly,  and,  as  he  could  see,  reluct- 
antly, "  if  they  do  talk  of  me  in  that  way,  I  am  afraid  I 
shall,  very  much." 

"  Then  you  had  better  take  back  what  you  have  just  said 
to  me — there  is  yet  time." 

"  Why  should  I  take  it  back,  if  you  please  ? " 

"  Because  if  you  are  going  to  distress  yourself  over  what 
will  inevitably  be  said  about  you  when  it  is  discovered  that 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  $13 

you  are  making  suppers  and  inviting  people  who  can  not  by 
any  possibility  make  suppers  for  you,  I  am  afraid  that  you 
will  discover  subsequently  that  your  views  have  been 
'  ultra  ; '  that  the  people  with  whom  you  have  filled,  or 
nearly  filled,  your  house,  can  be  just  as  well  and  far  more 
suitably  accommodated  elsewhere,  if  only  you  pay  for  the 
accommodation." 

She  looked  up  from  her  pick-up  work  now;  the  soft  color 
in  her  cheeks  deepened  as  she  met  his  eyes,  but  still  she 
spoke  quietly  : 

"  I  don't  know  why  I  should  feel  surprised  at  your  mak- 
ing such  a  mistake  as  that,"  she  said,  "  for  we  have  not 
known  each  other  very  long,  but  somehow  I  am.  I  don't 
suppose  any  body  enjoys  being  thought  weak-minded, 
and  it  seems  to  me  the  lowest  depth  of  weak-mindedness 
to  let  one's  convictions  be  shaken  by  one's  inclinations." 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,  Miss  Douglas  ;  perhaps  I  was  not 
wholly  serious — but  that  only  makes  it  worse,  I  see.  But 
you  have  made  an  apothegm  which  I  shall  endeavor  to  re- 
member. And  I  am  quite  serious  in  saying  that  I  think 
your  idea  in  this  matter  is  a  beautiful  one.  'People  with 
homes  do  not  realize,  I  think,  the  demoralizing  influence  of 
homelessness,  for  no  boarding-house  can  ever  be  considered 
a  home,  and  a  visit  in  such  a  home  as  this  can  not  be  with- 
out effect.  I  think,"  he  added  hastily,  "  that  Miss  Bowne 
would  make  a  cave  in  a  desert  island  seem  home-like  after 
she  had  spent  one  day  —  no,  half  a  day,  there  ;  don't 
you?" 

"Yes,  indeed,"  said  Muriel,  warmly,  and  only  too  thank- 
ful to  escape  further  discussion  of  herself  and  her  plans 
just  then  ;  "  I  can  never  be  sufficiently  grateful  to  her  for 
coming  to  me  ;  she  has  done  more  for  me  than  I  can  ever 
repay,  or  perhaps  even  realize.  I  am  frequently  attacked 
\>y  the  wish  that  she  might  have  a  chance  at  more  people. 


314  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

She  seems  to  have  a  peculiar  power,  not  for  governing,  but 
for  suggesting." 

"  She  has,  she  has,  indeed,"  he  replied,  with  a  sudden 
earnestness  which  made  Muriel  look  up  again.  "  But  I 
sometimes  wonder,"  he  added,  in  his  usual  tones,  "  how  far 
it  is  safe,  or  even  allowable,  to  offer  suggestions  to  other 
people  about  the  conduct  of  their  lives.  When  it  comes  to 
advice,  I  am  almost  convinced  that  nobody  had  better,  un- 
der any  circumstances,  give  advice  to  any  body!  " 

"  And  you  do  not  call  that  a  glittering  generality  ? " 

"  No;  I  assert  fearlessly  that  I  do  not.  Call  it  a  solemn 
warning  if  you  like,  and  beware  how  you  advise  any  body 
to  any  thing,  until  these  modern  psychologists  have  per- 
fected their  discoveries  and  we  can  look  into  our  neighbors' 
minds.  And  even  then,  we  shall  only  be  looking  at  them 
from  the  outside." 

"  That  is  a  most  disagreeable  suggestion.  I  can  not  con- 
ceive the  possibility  of  any  body's  willingness  to  have  his 
mind  looked  into,  even  from  the  outside." 

"  I  cannot,  either.  Let  us  hope  that  they  will  not  succeed 
until  some  time  after  our  death  !  " 

"  If  nobody  is,  under  any  circumstances,  to  advise  any 
body,  more  than  half  the  charm  of  the  discovery  will  be 
lost.  Must  you  go  ?  I  am  expecting  Aunt  Sally  every  mo- 
ment, and  she  is  always  disappointed  when  she  misses  one 
of  your  visits.  You  ought  to  feel  highly  honored  by  your 
place  in  her  regard." 

"  I  do,  but  I  fear  I  must  go,  notwithstanding.  What 
was  the  apothegm,  Miss  Douglas  ?  '  It  is  the  lowest 
depth  of  weak-mindedness  to  let  one's  convictions  be 
shaken  by  one's  inclinations  ? '  I  shall  try  to  remember 
it.  Good-by." 

"  You  were  not  at  all  agreeable  to-day,  Mr.  Duncan," 
soliloquized  Muriel,  as  she  heard  the  hall  door  close  upon 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  315 

him,  "  and  I  am  not  at  all  sorry,  on  my  own  account,  to 
have  you  go.  There  are  times  when  it  strikes  me  that  it 
would  give  you  great  pleasure,  if  you  were  not  restrained 
by  principle,  to  be  extremely  unpleasant,  and  this  was  one 
of  them.  I  don't  think  Aunt  Sally's  loss  is  irreparable,  this 
time." 

She  was  very  sensitive  to  any  thing  like  ridicule,  and  she 
had  an  idea  that  Mr.  Duncan  had  come  very  near  ridiculing 
her,  if  he  had  not  quite  done  it,  when  he  accused  her  of 
making  an  "  apothegm,"  and  returned  to  the  charge  at  the 
last  moment.  Perhaps  he  was  covertly  testing  the  strength 
of  her  own  faith  in  her  apothegm  ?  Well,  let  him  test  it. 
It  could  stand  a  much  more  severe  strain  than  any  to  which 
he  had  yet  subjected  it,  she  hoped  ! 

If  she  had  only  known  how  far,  in  his  heart  of  hearts,  he 
was  from  ridiculing  her  !  He  had  ceased,  for  many  days 
to  feel  the  shadowy  apprehension  which  had  made  Aunt 
Sally's  taunt  so  peculiarly  stinging  and  unbearable,  and  into 
its  place  had  been  gradually  stealing  a  fear — not  shadowy 
or  vague,  but  very  real — that  if  he  allowed  himself  much 
more  of  this  companionship — so  innocently  "  friendly  "  on 
her  side,  so  utterly  unconscious  of  any  thing  deeper  on  his 
— he  should  say  something  which  would,  in  his  own  eyes 
and  probably  in  hers  also,  degrade  him  forever.  For  what 
could  she,  what  could  any  one  think,  should  a  man  in  his 
position  ask  a  woman  in  hers  to  marry  him  ?  He  fancied 
the  most  good-natured,  the  most  charitable  of  his  friends, 
saying  amiably  :  "  Yes,  he's  done  a  very  good  thing  for  him- 
self. Nothing  to  do  but  walk  in  and  hang  up  his  hat.- 
He's  a  lucky  fellow  !  " 

He  had  heard  such  talk  ;  he  had  even  joined  in  it. 
Could  he  make  it  possible  that  it  should  be  applied  to  him  ; 
that  her  name  would  be  coupled  with  that  of  a  man  who 
would  be  supposed  to  marry  her  chiefly,  if  not  wholly,  for 


316  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

the  worldly  advantages  which  such  a  marriage  would  un- 
doubtedly give  him  ? 

But  where  was  the  will-power  of  which  he  had  always  been 
so complaisantly  conscious?  Surely,  he  need  not  cut  him- 
self off  from  what  was  fast  becoming  the  chief  charm 
of  living,  when  all  that  was  needed  was  a  little — no,  a 
great  deal !  of  resolution  ?  It  would  be  very  different  if 
there  were  the  smallest  hint  or  token  that  she  was,  how- 
ever unconsciously,  beginning  to — he  would  not  finish  the 
sentence  ;  he  felt  his  face  flush  hotly.  He  had  been  stung, 
only  a  few  days  before  by  noticing  how  exactly  the  same 
was  her  gentle  courtesy  to  Dick,  to  the  two  members  of  the 
glee  club,  whom  she  saw  most  often,  and  to  himself  ;  he 
even  fancied  that  her  manner  to  him  was  a  shade  less  cor- 
dial than  her  manner  to  the  others,  and  in  this  he  was  right, 
for  her  friendship  with  Dick  and  the  "  other  boys  "  was 
unshadowed  by  the  small  vexations  which  Neil  Duncan's 
words  often  caused  her.  But  he  would  not,  he  resolved,  do 
any  thing  so  sudden  as  to  arouse  her  wonder.  Surely,  he 
might  govern  both  looks  and  words  for  the  short  space  of 
time  in  which  she  saw  and  heard  them,  so  that  she  should 
suspect  nothing  of  what  he  was  feeling  and  thinking  ;  and 
in  time,  perhaps,  he  would  be  in  a  position  which  would 
make  it  possible  for  him  to  speak.  His  employers  thought 
well  of  him,  and  he  had  a  very  reasonable  hope  of 
steady  advancement.  His  salary  had  just  been  raised  to  a 
thousand  dollars,  and,  if  she  were  only  poor  and  friendless, 
he  should  not  hesitate  a  moment  to  ask  her  to  marry  him 
on  that.  So  he  would  temporize — and  he  scouted  the  idea 
which  thrust  itself  forward  with  disagreeable  pertinacity, 
that  his  only  real  safety  lay  in  flight  from  temptation. 

A  discussion  which  they  had  recently  held  about  a  novel, 
and  which  he  happened  to  recall  just  now,  served  to 
strengthen  him  in  his  latest  resolution,  if  a  deliberate  yield- 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  317 

ing  to  an  inclination  can  be  called  by  that  name.  It  was 
one  of  the  too-numerous  stories  in  which  the  heroine  is 
represented  as  the  silent  and  saintly  victim  of  a  love  for  a 
man  who  has  never  manifested  more  than  a  very  ordinary 
liking  for  her,  and  Muriel  had  been  roused  out  of  her  usual 
quietness  of  demeanor  by  his  half-laughing  defence  of  the 
idea. 

"  And,  pray,  why  not  ?  "  he  said.  "  What  is  there  to  hin- 
der a  woman  from  saying  to  herself,  with  '  Gentle  Alice 
Brown/  '  I  think  I  could  be  happy  with  a  gentleman  like 
you  ? '  She  need  not  say  it  aloud  because  she  thinks  it, 
and  I  never  could  see — " 

"  You  are  not  in  earnest,  I  know  you  are  not,"  inter- 
rupted Muriel,  almost  angrily.  "  The  very  fact,  that  every- 
one recognizes,  that  she  may  not,  must  not  say  it,  is  enough. 
I  wish  you  would  not  say  such  things,  even  in  jest.  I  don't 
believe  you  would,  if  you  knew  how  they  offend  me." 

"  I  will  not,  then.  But,  seriously,  Miss  Douglas,  does  it 
not  strike  you  as  slightly  paradoxical  that  a  woman  who 
has  occupied  this  lofty  position,  who  has  been  deaf  and 
blind,  as  it  were,  until  a  man  says  :  '  Will  you  marry  me  ? ' 
should  discover,  as  if  the  proposal  were  an  electric  light,  that 
she  loves  him  enough  to  say  yes  ?  " 

"  It's  a  good  deal  like  making  soap,"  struck  in  Aunt 
Sally  ;  she  had  kept  her  oar  out  as  long  as  she  possibly 
could,  and  she  saw,  besides,  that  Muriel's  genuine  vexation 
put  her  at  a  disadvantage  in  the  discussion.  "  Two  of  the 
'elements,'  as  I  suppose  I  ought  to  call  'em,  since  I'm  in 
Boston,  wouldn't  mix  if  you  stirred  them  around  in  the 
same  kettle  till  doomsday,  but  you  just  put  in  the  third,  and 
it's  done  in  a  minute  !  And  the  third  is  the  proposal  !  " 

Even  Muriel  joined  in  the  laugh,  which  Aunt  Sally 
frankly  started  herself,  and  Neil  Duncan  said  :  "  I  shall  in- 
sert a  new  reading  in  my  Tennyson.  I  know  now  that  what 


WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

he  really  meant  to  say  was  :  '  A  voice  said  faintly,  Is  there 
any  soap  ? '  ' 

And  Muriel,  instead  of  giving  him  the  reproachful  glance 
which  he  had  expected,  said  brightly  : 

"  Yes  ;  and  it  throws  light  upon  that  bit  of  hopeless  non- 
sense, as  it  has  been  irreverently  called,  which  begins  :  '  So 
she  went  into  the  garden  to  cut  a  cabbage-leaf  to  make  an 
apple-pie.'  We  can  see  now  distinctly  why  '  he  died  '  when 
'  the  great  she-bear  '  said,  tragically,  '  What,  no  soap  ! '  " 

"  What  in  this  earthly  world,  as  Ann  says,  are  you  talking 
about  ? "  inquired  Aunt  Sally,  in  a  thoroughly-puzzled 
voice  ;  whereupon  Muriel  glibly  repeated  the  hopeless  non- 
sense, and  then  immediately  began  to  talk  of  some- 
thing else. 

There  was  only  a  very  civil  and  friendly  regret  in  Muriel's 
manner  when  she  bade  Neil  Duncan  good-by  the  evening 
before  she  and  Aunt  Sally  were  to  go  to  Dovedale,  for, 
while  she  was  more  and  more  impressed,  as  she  came  to 
know  him  better,  with  the  strength  of  his  character,  and  the 
beauty  of  his  self-denying  and  busy  life,  unspoiled  by  any 
desire  for  praise,  or  even  recognition,  she  was  so  often  puz- 
zled and  annoyed  by  his  tendency  to  ridicule  nearly  every 
thing,  that  her  pleasure  in  talking  to  him  was  too  nearly 
counterbalanced.  He  had  more  than  half  expected  that 
Miss  Bowne  would  invite  him  to  come  and  see  them  during 
the  month  of  their  absence,  and  had  framed  a  sufficient 
excuse  for  declining  the  invitation,  by  way  of  reply.  This 
being  the  case,  he  had  a  perfect  right  to  accuse  himself  of 
being  "  utterly  senseless  "  for  feeling  disappointed  when  no 
such  invitation  was  given  ;  but  it  was  so  unlike  Miss 
Bowne,  under  the  circumstances,  to  refrain  from  giving  it, 
that  he  felt,  also,  a  sort  of  alarm.  Could  she  by  any  possi- 
bility have  penetrated  to  the  real  state  of  his  feelings  ? 

But  it  was  her  own  feelings,  and  no  suspicion  of  his,  which 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  319 

had  kept  her  from  asking  him  to  come  and  see  them  at  Dove- 
dale.  She  had  determined  to  take  no  more  such  responsi- 
bilities as  she  had  incurred  when  she  insisted  upon  his 
being  "  friendly  "  to  Muriel ;  there  was  quite  enough  of  a 
chance  that  the  horse  was  not  stolen  to  make  it  worth  while 
to  lock  the  stable-door  !  She  did  ask  him,  however,  if  he 
was  to  have  any  vacation  that  year,  and  he  said  yes,  two 
weeks  in  August,  and  he  and  one  of  his  fellow-clerks  were 
going  to  walk  away  all  the  first  week  and  then  walk  back  all 
the  second  ! 

Aunt  Sally  glanced  over  the  tall,  powerful  frame,  which 
looked  incapable  of  weariness  or  disease,  and  remarked  : 

"  I  suppose  that  is  your  idea  of  resting  ?  Well,  I  don't 
believe  it  will  hurt  you  !  " 

He  lingered  still,  mentally  calling  himself  all  sorts  of 
hard  names,  because  he  knew  he  was  waiting  for  some  word 
or  look  from  Muriel  which  should  express  a  little  real  re- 
gret ;  a  little  hope  of  meeting  him  again.  But  none  came, 
and  he  said  good-by  at  last,  and  Aunt  Sally  began,  as  soon 
as  he  was  gone,  "to  talk  of  many  things,"  so  that  the  re- 
mark which  Muriel  was  about  to  make  concerning  him  was 
not  made,  but  it  would,  perhaps,  have  done  Miss  Bowne 
good  to  have  known  that  it  was  : 

"  I  think  Mr.  Duncan  was  a  little  stupid  to-day,  aunty  ! 
I  was  not  so  sorry  to  bid  him  good-by  for  a  month  as  I 
thought  I  should  be  !  " 

A  delight  for  which  she  almost  reproached  herself  took 
possession  of  Muriel  as  she  reached  the  station  nearest 
Dovedale,  and  saw  the  friendly  faces  beaming  at  her  from 
the  large  wagon,  and  Dick,  still  more  beaming,  at  the  door 
of  the  car  ;  and  it  seemed  to  increase,  rather  than  dimin- 
ish, with  every  day  of  her  stay.  The  affectionate  care  and 
solicitude  which  surrounded  her  were  so  unobtrusive,  and 
left  her  so  untrammeled,  that  she  felt  at  home  directly  and 


320  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

ceased  to  wonder  at  Dick's  irrepressible  conflict  with  him- 
self when  he  contrasted  his  real  home  with  the  flat  ;  indeed 
she  thought  the  wonder  was  that  he  submitted  so  patiently, 
and  made  no  parade  of  his  submission.  He  had  showed 
her  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  farm,  and  taken  her  on 
most  of  his  favorite  "  tramps  "  before  the  Craigs  and  Os- 
bornes  arrived.  After  that,  it  seemed  to  Muriel,  the  whole 
family  lived  out  of  doors,  coming  into  the  house  only  to  eat 
and  sleep,  and  not  always  for  the  former  purpose,  for  what 
with  pic-nics,  and  teas  and  breakfasts  on  the  broad  veranda, 
the  dining-room  was  almost  as  much  slighted  as  the  parlor 
was.  Her  frequent  attacks  of  self-reproach  for  enjoying 
that  for  which,  or  the  like  of  which,  such  multitudes  were 
suffering,  were  always  routed  by  Aunt  Sally  as  being 
"  morbid." 

"  After  you've  done  all  you  can  for  other  people,  my 
dear,"  said  the  old  lady,  "  or  while  you're  doing  it,  there's 
no  reason  why  you  should  refuse  the  share  of  enjoyment 
that  falls  in  your  own  way  honestly,  and  without  your  tak- 
ing any  unfair  means  to  get  it.  To  Miss  Post  and  to  Lizzie 
and  her  brother,  a  share  of  your  home  is  quite  as  delightful 
as  what  you're  receiving  here  is  to  you  ;  and  after  your  ex- 
perience with  those  people  in  the  Row,  and  their  more  than 
indifference  to  a  home  in  the  country,  you  ought  to  be  able 
to  understand  that  what  is  one  man's  meat  is  often  another 
man's  poison  !  " 

Muriel  insisted  upon  going  to  Boston  every  Saturday,  for 
an  hour  at  the  ware-house,  and  as  there  was  at  this  time  of 
year  a  fast  return  train  at  five  o'clock,  and  she  pledged 
herself  to  take  it,  she  was  not  seriously  remonstrated  with. 
Dick  quietly  announced  his  intention  to  go  with  her,  and 
this  pleased  her  very  much.  She  had  said  nothing  of  the 
arrangement  to  Neil  Duncan,  partly  because  she  never 
knew  what  form  his  comments  on  her  designs  would  take, 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  321 

and  partly  because  she  did  not  wish  him  to  think  she  was 
even  remotely  suggesting  that,  even  if  he  wished,  he  could 
see  her  at  these  times.  She  and  Dick  armed  themselves 
with  huge  bouquets  of  daisies  and  clover  every  Saturday, 
and  with  smaller  ones  of  garden-flowers,  and  from  the  first 
they  gave,  as  they  went  along  to  all  the  ragged  children  they 
met,  and  to  many  others  not  ragged,  whose  longing  eyes 
said  the  "please  give  me  a  flower,"  as  plainly  as  it  was  spoken 
by  the  little  ragamuffins  who  did  not  hesitate  to  put  it  into 
words.  She  managed,  by  going  up  on  an  early  train,  to 
spend  an  hour  with  Miss  Post  and  Margery,  and  was  greatly 
cheered  by  the  former's -account  of  Lizzy  and  Robert  ;  for, 
even  making  allowance  for  the  rose-colored  spectacles 
through  which  Miss  Post,  despite  her  blindness,  continued 
to  see,  it  was  evident  from  the  facts  she  told,  and  from 
Margery's  account  as  well,  that  they  were  doing  all  in  their 
power  to  testify  to  their  gratitude  and  content.  And,  besides 
this,  Lizzy  heard  once  a  week  from  her  mother,  and  as  she 
always  read  her  letter  to  Miss  Post  at  least  once,  Muriel 
heard  a  good  many  things  about  the  daily  life  of  her  Harts- 
well  colony  which  she  could  have  heard  in  no  other  way, 
and  she  was  surprised  to  learn  from  various  indications, 
rather  than  any  distinct  testimony,  how  thoroughly  they  were 
enjoyin  g  themselves  !  The  chief  boast  of  all  of  them  seemed 
to  be  how  much  they  were  "  putting  up  "  for  next  winter,  and 
there  was  always  something  about  "  Miss  Prudence  ;  "  either 
she  had  invited  one  or  another  to  tea  at  the  farm,  or  she 
had  showed  them  some  new  way  of  putting  up  something, 
or  told  them  of  something  else  they  could  put  up. 

"  She  is  undermining  her  own  business  terribly,  Miss 
Post,  isn't  she  ?  "  said  Muriel,  laughing,  after  hearing  the 
main  facts  of  one  of  these  letters  ;  "  its  a  very  good  thing 
she  will  be  in  a  salaried  position  next  winter,  and  able  to 
eat  and  give  away  all  that  she  can  not  sell." 


322  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

Several  times  Muriel  had  letters  from  Miss  Prudence 
herself,  cheerful,  sensible  letters  like  her  talk,  praising  the 
women  in  the  little  colony  for  their  industry  and  readiness 
to  learn  new  ways,  and  always  ending  with  a  psean  that  she 
was  not  obliged  to  live  there  "  all  the  year  round  !  " 

"  Just  imagine,  aunty,"  said  Muriel,  after  reading  one  of 
these  documents  to  Aunt  Sally,  "  any  body's  tz.3\\y  preferring 
that  stived-up  little  city  street,  with  the  warehouse  behind 
it,  and  others  almost  as  near  in  front,  to  that  lovely  coun- 
try about  Hartswell !  It  seems  actually  impossible  !  " 

"  It  isn't  the  street  she  prefers,  my  dear  ;  it's  the  home 
she's  grown  accustomed  to,  and  the  business  she's  fitted 
for,  and  the  people  she  likes  to  meet,  and  the  feeling  of  life 
and  stir  only  a  few  blocks  off.  I  can  understand  how  the 
country,  to  born  and  bred  city  folks,  might  seem  just  as 
lonesome  and  dreary  as  the  city  does  to  real  country  folks." 

It  was  about  the  middle  of  July,  after  Miss  Forsythe  had 
come,  and  when  Aunt  Sally  and  Muriel  were  thinking  with 
regret  that  their  visit  at  Dovedale  was  more  than  half  over, 
that  Muriel,  looking  over  a  daily  paper  which  Jack  Osborne 
had  handed  her,  exclaimed  suddenly  : 

"  Why  aunty  '  That  nice  old  Mr.  Sellers,  who  owned 
the  warehouse,  is  dead  ;  he  died  yesterday  !  I've  been  won- 
dering why  he  has  not  been  to  the  Row  for  so  long,  and  now 
it  says,  '  after  a  lingering  illness."  How  sorry  I  am  that  I 
did  not  know  he  was  ill  !  " 

And  in  another  part  of  the  same  paper,  a  few  days  later, 
she  came  upon  a  notice  which  filled  her  with  excitement. 
Mr.  Sellers's  estate,  a  large  one,  the  paper  said,  was  to  be 
settled  immediately,  and  the  warehouse  was  to  be  sold  ! 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

AND    LAST. 

"  Labor  is  mortal  and  fades  away, 
But  Love  shall  triumph  in  perfect  day  ; 
Labor  may  wither  beneath  the  sod, 
But  Love  lives  ever,  for  Love  is  God." 

IT  did  not  take  Muriel  long  to  conclude  that  here  was  an 
"  opportunity  "  which  she  could  not  afford  to  miss.  Her 
one  room  at  the  warehouse  was  already  overcrowded,  and 
she  felt  sure  that,  with  the  first  approach  of  cold  weather, 
there  would  be  many  more  applicants  for  admission.  Other 
projects  which  had  flitted  before  her  mind  at  different 
times  could  be  carried  out  if  she  had  such  a  building  as  the 
warehouse  at  her  disposal ;  a  gymnasium,  a  cooking  and 
sewing  room,  a  kindergarten  for  the  very  little  children,  and 
a  day-nursery,  the  need  for  which  she  guessed  by  the  con- 
dition of  several  which  she  had  recently  visited.  Aunt 
Sally  and  she  kept  working  each  other  up  with  suggestions 
of  the  possibilities  which  that  building  held,  until  in  a  day 
or  two  all  the  others  were  laughing  at  them,  and  uttering 
mildly  sarcastic  wonders  that  they  had  never  discovered  a 
structure  of  such  gigantic  proportions  as  this  must  be,  from 
all  it  was  destined  to  contain,  right  in  the  heart  of 
Boston  ! 

"  Oh,  '  you  may  laugh,'  as  Aunt  Sally  says  !  "  answered 
Muriel,  gayly,  "but  you  will  find  that  with  judicious  man- 
agement, it  will  hold  every  single  thing  we  have  planned, 


324  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

and  possibly  one  or  two  more  !  And  when  I  go  up  on  Sat- 
urday morning,  I  am  going  straight  to  Mr.  Keith's  office  to 
get  his  consent  and  put  the  matter  in  train  !  It  is  high 
time  to  begin,  if  it  is  to  be  ready  before  cold  weather." 

She  was  fortunate  in  finding  the  "  senior  partner  "  in,  and 
alone,  and  though  he  listened  with  the  kindest  attention,  as 
she  unfolded  her  plans  to  him,  she  fancied  that  his  face 
grew  very  serious,  and  he  did  not  reply  for  several  minutes 
to  the  eager  question  with  which  she  concluded  : 

"  Do  you  think  I  might  do  it,  dear  Mr.  Keith  ?" 

"  The  property  is  valuable  in  itself,"  he  said,  at  last,  "  and 
I  see  no  risk  in  buying  it,  if  it  should  sell  for  any  thing  like 
a  reasonable  price,  for  it  is  pretty  sure  to  rise  in  value,  and 
very  sure,  I  think,  not  to  decline.  But  do  you  know,  my  dear 
young  lady,  that  you  are  planning  out  an  enterprise  which 
will,  for  at  least  a  year  to  come,  until  it  is  fairly  manned, 
so  to  speak,  and  under  way,  absorb  nearly  all  your  time,  if 
you  mean  to  do  it  justice  ?  And  have  you  reflected  that 
the  amount  of  money  which  it  will  require  could  be,  per- 
haps, bestowed  upon  some  of  the  many  excellent  charities 
which  are  already  organized  and  in  working  order  ?  " 

He  did  not  know  how  those  two  innocent  words,  "  organ- 
ized charities  "  fixed  her  purpose,  if  that  were  possible, 
even  more  firmly  and  made  her  feel  willing  to  undertake 
the  labor  and  self-denial  which  she  knew  it  must  and  would 
involve. 

"  It  is  not  just  the  money  that  I  want  to  give,"  she  said. 
"  I  think  it  is,  myself,  too.  Perhaps  I  am  wrong  ;  I  know 
I  am  prejudiced,  but  indeed,  I  think  a  help,  not  a  charity, 
managed  by  people,  not  by  a  board,  may  do  some  things 
which  the  best  organizations  must  in  their  very  nature  fail 
to  reach.  I  have  thought  so  much  about  it.  And  I  have 
seen  what  a  dreadful  thing  money  can  be,  Mr.  Keith.  I 
pray  every  day  that  whenever  it  begins  to  be  that  to  me  it 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  325 

may  be  taken  from  me,  or  I  from  it.  So  you  will  not  hinder 
me  about  this,  my  kind  friend  ? " 

She  laid  her  hand  upon  his  and  looked  up  at  him  with 
pleading  eyes. 

"  My  dear,  I  will  not !  "  he  said,  as  earnestly  as  she  had 
spoken  herself.  "  I  only  wish  you  to  count  the  cost,  not  in 
money,  but  in  other  things,  and  to  be  sure  that  you  would 
not  tire  of  this  undertaking,  and  draw  back,  for  that  I 
think  would  do  far  more  harm  than  if  you  were  never  to 
attempt  it.  But  1  think  you  are  in  earnest,  and  I  feel  very 
well  assured  that  this  is  just  such  a  thing  as  your  grand- 
father, when  he  was  dying,  would  have  approved  and  sanc- 
tioned. You  have,  so  far,  calculating  by  what  you  have 
drawn  per  month,  lived  within  your  income,  and  I  have  no 
fear  that  you  will  ever  wish  to  increase  your  expenses  by 
any  thing  done  merely  for  outward  show.  Beside,  your 
income,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  will  steadily  increase  for  some 
years  to  come.  If  I  can  help  you  in  any  way  about  this 
enterprise,  I  hope  you  will  have  sufficient  confidence  in  me 
to  command  my  help.  I  have  withdrawn  myself  of  late 
from  any  very  active  participation  in  the  business  of  the 
firm  ;  my  sons  are  quite  able  to  manage  it,  and  I  am  begin- 
ning to  feel  like  the  old  man  that  I  am  ;  but  to  your  affairs 
I  hope  to  attend  so  long  as  my  mind  does  not  share  in  the 
feebleness  of  my  body." 

"  How  kind,  how  good  you  are  to  me  !  "  said  Muriel, 
gratefully.  "  I  don't  know  how  to  thank  you,  Mr.  Keith, 
just  for  understanding  !  You  will  let  me  know  as  soon  as 
my  warehouse  is  really  mine  ?  " 

"  I  will,  indeed.  And  don't  cut  short  your  visit  in  the 
country,  my  dear.  You  are  looking  much  better  and 
stronger  for  your  absence,  and  to  care  for  others  effectually, 
you  must  take  all  reasonable  care  of  yourself." 

"  All  reasonable  care  !  "  said   Muriel  to  herself,  as  she 


3 26  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

walked  rapidly  away,  for  she  had  staid  longer  than  she  had 
expected  to  stay,  and  had  only  time  for  a  hurried  call  on  Miss 
Post.  "  It  is  very  hard,  I  think,  to  draw  the  line  between 
reasonable  care  of  oneself,  and  self-absorption  !  And  yet 
he  must  be  right ;  no  skillful  workman  will  neglect  the  care 
of  his  machinery  or  tools." 

So  while  she  chatted  with  Miss  Post,  she  ate  the  lunch 
which  Margery  joyfully  brought  her,  with  the  remark  : 

"  If  I'd  known  you'd  be  asking  for  lunch  at  five  minutes' 
notice  like  this,  Miss  Muriel,  I'd  have  had  something  ready 
for  you,  besides  cold  rolls  and  milk !  " 

Muriel  had  hard  work  to  keep  her  thoughts  where  they 
belonged  that  afternoon,  and  to  wait  until  she  and  Dick 
had  started  for  the  train,  to  tell  him  about  her  interview 
with  Mr.  Keith.  He  fairly  rivaled  Aunt  Sally  in  plans  and 
suggestions  as  they  whirled  along,  and  they  were  both  very 
much  surprised  when  the  conductor  shouted  : 

"  All  out  for  Dovedale !  " 

The  all  included  Stephen  Craig,  who  had  been  in  Boston 
since  the  day  before.  They  had  not  happened  to  see  each 
other  either  at  the  Boston  station,  or  on  the  train,  and  he 
was  glad,  he  said,  to  find  that  they  had  not  come  by  an 
earlier  train,  and  so  left  him  to  walk  home.  It  struck  Mu- 
riel at  once  that  he  looked  unusually  serious,  and  as  they 
drove  along  he  mentioned  the  reason — he  had  heard,  upon 
good  authority,  that  day,  that  a  savings-bank  in  which  he 
knew  that  Miss  Forsythe  had  recently  deposited  the  small 
sum  which  had  been  slowly  and  laboriously  laid  by  against 
that  possible  "  rainy-day  "  for  which  every  one  looks  more 
or  less,  had  failed  disgracefully,  as  well  as  disastrously,  and 
he  had  also  heard,  although  this  he  did  not  feel  called  upon 
to  mention  just  then,  that  a  very  promising  stock-company, 
in  which  he  had  been  induced  to  invest  the  proceeds  of 
several  of  his  recent  sales  of  pictures,  had  gone  totally  to 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  327 

pieces  ;  the  only  consolation  to  the  stock  holders  being  that 
the  same  figure — o — stood  alike  for  assets  and  liabilities  ! 

Both  Muriel  and  Dick  were  distressed  by  the  news  of  Miss 
Forsythe's  loss,  and  Muriel  began  at  once  to  try  to  devise 
some  scheme  for  making  it  good,  without  wounding  the  pride 
of  that  independent  woman.  With  May  alone,  she  was  pretty 
sure  she  could  have  managed  "  somehow,"  but  about  May's 
aunt  she  did  not  feel  so  much  confidence  in  this  respect. 
This  bit  of  bad  news  damped  the  exuberant  joy  with  which 
she  was  bringing  her  good  news  to  Aunt  Sally  and  her  other 
friends,  and  she  quite  agreed  with  Stephen  that  it  was  un- 
neccessary  to  tell  the  former  that  evening. 

"  It  will  keep  perfectly  well  until  morning,"  he  said,  add- 
ing mentally,  "  and  so  will  my  latest  intelligence  for 
Fanny,"  and  they  all  three  tried  to  throw  off  the  depression 
which  they  felt,  and  be  at  least  as  cheerful  as  usual. 

That  same  evening,  as  Neil  Duncan  was  returning  from 
one  of  the  long  tramps  which  helped  to  keep  up  his  vigor 
of  mind  and  body,  and  was  still  in  the  outskirts  of  the  city, 
where  the  lights  were  not  so  numerous  as  in  the  more 
thickly-settled  parts,  he  found  himself  walking  just  behind 
two  young  men,  who,  arm-in-arm,  and  keeping  step,  kept 
just  far  enough  ahead  of  him  to  prevent  him  from  trying  to 
pass  them. 

He  was  paying  no  attention  to  their  talk,  when  the  name 
of  "  Miss  Douglas,"  distinctly  uttered  by  one  of  them, 
caught  his  ear,  and  he  heard  the  other  reply  : 

"  Yes,  it's  a  confounded  shame  !  Every  cent,  they  say, 
and  though,  I  suppose,  she  still  owns  the  house,  it  won't  do 
her  much  good,  under  the  circumstances,  unless  she  can 
sell  it." 

"  I'm  sorry,  very  sorry,"  resumed  the  first  speaker  ;  "  she's 
a  thoroughly  nice  girl,  and  so,  meaning  no  disrespect  to  her, 
is  the  aunt  too,  I  imagine.  I  wonder  what  they  will  do  ?  " 


328  IV A  YS  AND  MEANS. 

They  turned  down  a  side  street  before  the  other  replied, 
and  Neil  Duncan,  walking  slowly  on,  tried  to  quiet  his 
whirling  brain  and  think.  It  never  crossed  his  mind  that 
the  "  Miss  Douglas  "  of  whom  they  spoke  could  be  any 
other  than  Muriel,  for  he  had  remembered,  almost  immedi- 
ately, seeing  in  that  morning's  paper  a  notice  of  the  failure 
of  the  stock  company,  in  which  Stephen's  money  had  been 
lost,  and  a  statement  that  "  several  of  our  best  families,  who 
had  been  induced,  by  plausible  misrepresentations,  to  invest 
in  this  concern,  would  probably  suffer  more  than  the  rascals 
who  had  fleeced  them." 

And  he  knew  absolutely  nothing  of  Muriel's  affairs.  A 
very  slight  knowledge  of  them  would  have  led  him  to  sus- 
pect that  he  must  be  mistaken,  for  any  one  who  knew  the 
elder  Mr.  Keith  would  also  know  that  Muriel  would  never 
have  been  counseled  by  him  to  invest  all  her  money  in  any 
one  concern. 

One  thought  was  most  prominent,  as  his  mind  gradually 
cleared  and  recovered  it's  balance  ;  he  must  see  her  at  once, 
before  she  had  had  time  to  be  distressed  and  uneasy  ;  he 
must  win  her  promise,  even  if  she  did  not  and  could  not 
love  him  now,  to  give  him  a  chance  to  make  her  !  It  seemed 
to  him  that  he  was  treading  on  air,  so  buoyant  did  he  feel. 
To  be  free  to  speak,  to  tell  her  something  of  what  he  had 
lately  been  thinking  and  feeling,  was  so  much,  so  very  much  ! 
Surely  it  would  be  his  own  fault,  now,  if  he  could  not  win  her. 
He  stopped  at  the  first  ticket-office  to  which  he  came,  to 
inquire  about  trains.  It  was  still  early  ;  it  could  not  yet 
be  nine  o'clock  he  thought  ;  perhaps  he  might  go  to-night, 
and  so  be  there  ready  to  see  her  at  the  first  possible  mo- 
ment in  the  morning.  But  he  found  that  the  last  train 
which  stopped  at  the  Dovedale  station  had  been  gone  for 
some  hours,  and  that  there  would  only  be  two  each  way  the 
next  day,  which  would  be  Sunday. 


IV A  YS  AND  MEANS.  329 

So  there  was  nothing  for  it  but  to  wait,  and  as  it  seemed 
more  possible  to  wait  while  he  was  in  motion,  he  started 
forth  once  more,  walked  out  well  into  the  country,  and 
reached  his  lodgings  near  midnight,  so  completely  tired 
that  he  fell  asleep  as  soon  as  he  was  in  bed,  instead  of  lying 
awake  and  planning  his  campaign,  as  he  had  confidently 
expected  to  do.  But  the  fear  which  had  haunted  him,  that 
he  would  sleep  too  late  for  the  early  morning  train,  woke 
him  at  dawn,  and  he  was  at  the  station  half  an  hour  too 
soon.  And  here,  by  a  co-incidence,  another  accidentally- 
heard  scrap  of  talk  confirmed — if  it  needed  confirmation — 
his  mistaken  belief.  It  was  just  a  few  words,  as  before, 
about  "  Miss  Douglas  and  her  aunt,"  and,  "  every  thing  gone 
but  the  house,  you  know." 

He  caught  himself  wishing  that  the  house  had  gone,  too, 
for  it  represented  more  money  than  he  wished  her  to  own. 

"  But  very  probably  there  may  be  liabilities,"  he  reflected, 
and  this  happy  thought  consoled  him  and  made  him  resolve 
not  to  let  the  house  stand  in  the  way.  now  that  the  far  more 
formidable  obstacle  of  the  fortune  was  gone. 

He  thought  the  country  had  never  looked  so  lovely,  and 
he  was  struck  by  the  number  of  pleasant-looking  people  on 
the  train.  And  then,  suddenly,  as  he  left  the  station  and 
started  up  the  long  country  road,  not  much  more  than  a 
lane,  which  the  ticket  agent  had  pointed  out  to  him,  he  be- 
gan to  reflect  upon  the  strangeness  of  his  unlooked-for  de- 
scent upon  a  family  which  he  knew  very  pleasantly,  but  not 
very  intimately,  in  a  place  so  far  from  his  usual  haunts  that 
his  coming  could  not  be  accidental.  And,  "  to  cap  the 
climax,"  as  Aunt  Sally  would  have  said,  they  would,  in  all 
probability,  just  be  sitting  down  to  dinner. 

And  as  soon  as  he  thought  of  dinner  he  became  con- 
scious that  he  was  ravenously  hungry.  He  had  eaten  no 
supper  the  night  before,  his  breakfast  had  been  hurried 


33°  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

through  his  fear  of  missing  the  train,  and  he  dared  not 
think  of  the  dinner  he  might  eat,  even  though  the  lady  of 
his  dreams  should  be  sitting  directly  opposite.  The  one 
step  between  the  sublime  and  the  ridiculous  had  been  taken, 
and  although  his  resolve  was  just  as  firm  and  his  love  as 
strong,  he  began  to  realize  that  he  had  strayed  a  good  way 
from  "  the  kingdom  of  common  sense."  So  he  stopped  at 
the  first  farm-house  and  asked  if  there  were  any  tavern  or 
boarding-house  near  by  where  he  could  get  his  dinner. 
None  nearer  than  a  good  three  miles,  the  farmer  assured 
him  ;  but  they  had  just  finished  dinner  ;  there  was  a  plenty 
left,  and — 

"  Come  right  in  and  sit  down,  young  man,"  said  the 
farmer,  heartily,  "  and  1  reckon  mother  can  scratch  you 
up  enough  to  satisfy  you.  Mother  !  "  he  shouted  through 
the  open  door. 

Whereupon,  Mother,  a  pleasant-faced  woman,  some 
years  younger  than  her  husband,  came  forward  and 
confirmed  the  reckoning,  and  immediately  proceeded 
to  verify  it.  They  would  accept  no  payment,  and 
he  departed  in  receipt  of  a  cordial  invitation  to  "drop  in 
again  if  he  happened  to  be  passin'/'  and  went  on  his  way 
much  refreshed  and  tranquilized,  and  very  thankful  that  he 
had  not  signalized  his  arrival  at  Dovedale  by  eating  that 
dinner ! 

He  knew  the  house  at  once  as  he  approached  it,  from  a 
sketch  which  Muriel  had  shown  him.  There  was  a  clump 
of  hazel  bnshes  near  the  entrance  gate,  in  the  midst  of  which 
a  bench  had  been  placed,  which  bench  was  almost  entirely 
screened  from  view,  but  at  one  point  in  the  winding  car- 
riage road  it  was  visible.  And  on  this  bench,  with  a  book 
in  her  lap,  which  she  was  not  even  pretending  to  read,  sat 
Muriel,  quite  alone.  He  walked  a  little  farther,  and  then 
approached  the  place  over  the  soft,  thick  grass  from  the 


WAYS  AND  MEANS.  331 

side,  so  that  she  did  not  see  him  until  he  spoke.  She  started 
up,  but  immediately  sat  down  again,  and  save  for  a  heighten- 
ing of  the  color  in  her  cheeks,  seemed,  as  he  rather  dis- 
mally reflected,  entirely  composed. 

"  I  don't  wonder  you  were  glad  you  knew  some  people 
in  the  country  who  would  like  to  see  you,"  she  said,  as  soon 
as  he  was  seated  on  the  other  end  of  the  right-angled  bench, 
and  thus  nearly  facing  her.  "I  was  just  pitying  all  the 
poor  people  who  are  shut  up  in  cities  to-day.  Aunt  Sally 
and  all  of  them  will  be  so  glad  to  see  you.  I  am  very  sorry 
that  I  am  the  sole  representative  just  now.  They  have, 
everyone  of  them  except  Alice,  walked  to  church,  two  miles 
away.  She  is  in  her  room  with  a  headache,  poor  girl,  and 
I  didn't  feel  like  going,  so  they  were  kind  enough  to  leave 
me.  That  is  one  of  the  charms  of  this  place — one  is  abso- 
lutely free  to  pursue  happiness  in  one's  own  way." 

He  looked  at  her  in  astonishment.  He  had  never  heard 
her  talk  so  fast  and  fluently  before,  and  he  did  not  know 
how  plainly  his  purpose  was  written  on  his  face.  But  some 
instinct  made  him  know  that  she  had  divined  and  was  try- 
ing to  avert  it,  and  he  only  waited  for  her  to  pause.  Then 
he  stood  up  before  her  and  tried  to  speak,  but  every  word 
that  had  been  in  his  mind  vanished  as  if  by  some  wicked 
act  of  magic.  With  a  reverent  touch  he  laid  one  hand  over 
her  two,  which  were  clasped  upon  her  book. 

"  Muriel  !  " 

He  could  not  have  added  another  word  if  all  his  hopes 
had  depended  on  it,  so  he  waited,  and  presently 

"  The  silence  drew  her  face  up  like  a  call," 

and  their  eyes  met.  She  did  not  take  her  hands,  which 
were  trembling  very  much,  away  from  his,  but  she  said, 
softly  : 

"  I  can  not  pretend  not  to  understand  you.     I  think — I 


33  2  W-+  YS  AND  MEANS. 

almost  know — that   I   am  glad,  but  you  must  wait  a  little. 
I  must  think — you  have  taken  me  so  by  surprise." 
It  was  the  often-repeated  lesson  of  life  again  : 

"  Worse  than  our  hopes,  but  better  than  our  fears." 

He  knew  now  that  he  had  hoped  for  far  more  than  this, 
and  that  he  had  feared  far  more,  too. 

He  drew  his  hand  away. 

"  You  shall  wait,"  he  said,  very  gently.  "  I  did  not  mean 
to  startle  you,  dear.  I  will  try  to  be  patient.  But  can  you 
understand  that  lately,  since  I  have  loved  you  and  dared 
not  tell  you  so,  I  have  belied  myself  to  you  ? " 

She  thought  a  moment,  and  then  her  face  brightened.  All 
that  had  puzzled  and  annoyed  her  seemed  explained.  But 
why,  she  wondered,  had  he  not  dared,  since  he  did  not  seem 
at  all  afraid  of  daring  now  ? 

One  of  his  fears  had  been  that  the  sudden  change  in  her 
fortunes  would  cause  her  to  refuse  him  in  such  a  way  that 
he  could  not  be  sufficiently  certain  of  her  reason  to  urge  his 
suit,  and  he  blessed  her  for  the  evident  unconsciousness  of 
every  consideration  of  this  sort  which  had  marked  her 
answer.  The  more  he  thought  in  the  sweet  summer  silence, 
the  more  he  hoped  ;  for  over  her  face,  which  he  was  in- 
tently watching,  the  thoughts  of  her  heart  were  sending 
fleeting  expressions,  like  cloud-shadows  and  sunshine  over 
a  landscape.  Then  a  sudden  panic  seized  him  ;  he  could 
not  face  even  the  friendliest  faces  just  now,  while  the 
balance  still  trembled  uncertainly,  in  spite  of  all  his  hopes. 

"  I  must  go,"  he  said,  hurriedly  ;  "  I  am  going  back  this 
evening,  and  I  can't — oh,  Muriel,  you  will  try  not  to  keep 
me  long  in  this  fear  ?  If  you  only  knew — if  I  could  only 
make  you  understand — it  will  be  torment,  when  I  am  away 
from  you.  Be  merciful." 

"  I  am  sorry,"  she  said,  and  her  eyes  filled  with  sudden 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  333 

tears.  "  I  wish  I  could  say  at  once  that  I  could  be  quite 
certain.  I  ought  to  love  you  so  much,  to  be  able  to  say — to 
promise — " 

She  looked  up  beseechingly.  No  thought  of  coquetting 
with  him,  of  testing  his  feelings,  prompted  that  look  ;  she 
was  in  honest  doubt  of  her  own,  and  yet  he  felt  a  joyful 
thrill  as  he  looked  at  her  quivering  face — the  statue  was  be- 
ginning to  throb  with  the  woman's  heart. 

"  I  will  write,"  she  said.  "  I  can  tell  you  better  what  I 
mean.  But  I  know  this  much — I  am  very  glad  you  love 
me." 

"  Then — "  he  began  eagerly,  but  he  stopped  himself  ;  he 
would  not  be  ungenerous. 

"  Good-by,"  he  said,  "  good-by,  Muriel,"  and  he  held 
the  hand  she  gave  him  fast  in  both  his  own  for  a  moment, 
and  then  he  was  gone,  and  she  wondered  if  the  whole  thing 
had  been  a  dream. 

And  on  his  way  to  his  lodging,  after  he  reached  Boston, 
he  met  a  friend,  who,  in  the  course  of  conversation,  told 
him  all  about  the  failure  of  the  bank,  and  of  the  stock-tom- 
pany,  and  how  people  were  mixing  them  up,  and  how  among 
those  "  hit "  by  the  former  were  Miss  Forsythe  and  her 
niece,  Miss  Douglas  ;  and  here  Neil  Duncan  gave  a  sudden 
exclamation,  and  said  : 

"  That  Miss  Douglas  ?  I  understood  that  it  was  the 
other — her  cousin  !  " 

"  Oh,  no,  my  dear  fellow,"  and  his  companion  laughed. 
"  You're  betraying  your  lamentable  ignorance.  Old  Keith, 
the  lawyer,  has  charge  of  Miss  Muriel  Douglas's  affairs,  and 
although  he  seems  to  be  letting  her  do  a  good  many  absurd 
things  with  her  income,  you  may  depend  he  keeps  his  grip 
on  the  principal.  And  a  very  pretty  principal  it  is,  I  under- 
stand ;  enough  to  float  a  much  more  unattractive  girl  than 
the  temporarily-philanthropic  Miss  Douglas." 


334  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

Neil  Duncan  set  his  teeth  hard,  and  managed  to  escape 
from  his  loquacious  friend  without  saying  any  thing  besides 
"  Good-evening." 

But  a  roaring  like  the  sound  of  the  sea  was  in  his  brain, 
,  and  it  seemed  to  him  he  must  be  walking  unsteadily.  So 
this  was  what  would  be  said  ?  A  penniless  man,  a  mere 
fortune-hunter,  had  made  a  pretense  of  helping  her  with  her 
"  temporary "  philanthropy,  of  falling  in  with  her  views, 
that  he  might  win,  incidentally,  her  love,  and,  through  it, 
her  fortune. 

And  so,  while  Muriel,  with  a  growing  sense  of  happiness, 
of  security  in  a  blessing  all  her  own,  was  shyly  telling  Aunt 
Sally  something  of  what  had  happened,  and  framing  in  her 
mind  the  letter  she  should  write  next  day,  and  dreaming 
those  waking  dreams  which  we  can  mold  to  our  will,  unlike 
the  arbitrary  dreams  of  sleep,  the  lover  of  whom  she 
dreamed  was  nerving  himself  to  write  to  her  that  night ;  to 
frame  a  note  which  should  accept  her  hesitation  as  refusal- 
He  did  not  stop  to  analyze  his  motives.  There  is  a  wrong 
side*to  every  nature,  even  the  noblest,  and  the  wrong  side 
of  his  was  an  over-sensitiveness  to,  a  selfish  regard  for,  the 
opinions  of  the  few  people  for  whom  he  cared,  while,  as  so 
often  happens,  he  was  held  to  be  utterly  indifferent  to  any 
judgment  save  his  own.  And,  arguing  from  many  remarks 
on  more  or  less  similar  cases,  which  he  had  heard  at  one 
time  and  another,  even  his  most  intimate  friends,  the  ones 
who  knew  him  best,  would  say  things  not  only  of,  but  to 
him  which  would  make  him  wince.  And  what  could  even 
she  think  ? 

"  And  she  does  not  love  me,  yet,  "  he  said  to  himself,  try- 
ing to  take  comfort  from  the  thought,  and  smiling  forlornly 
as  he  remembered  Aunt  Sally's  brisk  dictum,  "  It's  like  mak- 
ing soap  !  " 

There  had  been   no  swift  response  and  surrender  here- 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  335 

He  would  be  in  time  to  prevent  any  mischief  to  any  one  but 
himself. 

As  the  summer  dawn  was  breaking,  fresh  and  sweet, 
even  within  city  limits,  he  wrote  his  letter  ;  but  it  suited  him 
so  ill  that  he  would  not  post  it.  He  would  keep  it  in  his 
pocket,  and  try  once  more  in  the  course  of  the  day,  he 
thought.  He  did  not  believe  that  she  would  write  for  sev- 
eral days. 

The  head  of  the  large  wholesale  house  in  which  he  was 
employed  came  to  him  that  day,  with  an  offer  which  was 
not  the  sudden  and  surprising  thing  which  it  seemed  to  him, 
but  was  the  result  of  a  good  deal  of  consultation  and 
thought  among  the  older  members.  They  wanted  a  rnan 
whom  they  could  trust,  to  go  to  India,  and  stay  there  for  a 
year  ;  and  although,  as  they  agreed,  Neil  Duncan  was  not 
in  all  respects  the  man  they  wanted,  in  the  most  essential 
points  he  was.  The  offer  was,  double  his  present  salary 
and  all  his  expenses  paid,  for  the  part  of  the  country  to 
which  they  wished  to  send  him  was  not  an  especially  health- 
ful one,  and  they  were  willing,  as  they  said,  to  make  it 
"  worth  his  while  "  to  go. 

They  were  a  good  deal  surprised  by  his  immediate  and 
unquestioning  acceptance  of  the  offer,  and  the  head  of  the 
firm  remarked  that  there  was  no  need  for  such  haste  ;  that 
they  expected  him  to  take  a  day  or  two  in  which  to  make 
up  his  mind.  Had  he  no  relatives  or  friends  whom  he 
would  wish  to  consult  ? 

"  I  have  no  near  relatives  living,"  he  replied,  gravely, 
almost  abruptly,  "  and  the  distant  ones  are  distant  in  both 
senses  of  the  word.  I  can  give  you  my  answer  as  well  now 
as  to-morrow  or  next  day.  I  was  wishing  for  a  change,  and 
I  shall  be  very  willing'to  go." 

"  And  how  soon  could  you  be  ready  ? "  asked  his  em- 
ployer, next. 


33  6  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

"  To-morrow — no,  the  next  day,"  he  answered,  absently, 
and  not  noticing  the  surprised  glances  which  passed  between 
them. 

"  We  had  thought,"  said  another  member  of  the  firm,  "  of 
suggesting  the  steamer  which  leaves  New  York  next  Satur- 
day. You  will,  of  course,  go  by  the  overland  route  ;  as  this 
is  only  Monday,  that  will  give  you  two  days  more  than  you 
require,  for  it  will  be  well  for  you  to  be  in  New  York  by 
Friday  evening.  Would  this  arrangement  suit  you  ?  " 

"  Perfectly,"  he  replied,  and,  afraid  that  his  manner  would 
cause  them  to  doubt  the  wisdom  of  their  choice,  he  roused 
himself,  by  great  effort,  questioned  them  intelligently  as  to 
the  duties  he  was  to  assume,  made  notes  of  their  replies, 
and  was  told  that  he  would  receive  written  instructions  be- 
fore his  departure,  and,  from  time  to  time,  after  he  reached 
his  destination- 

There  was  some  little  comment,  after  he  left  the  office, 
upon  the  peculiar  manner  in  which  he  had  received  their 
offer,  and  his  apparent  eagerness  to  lose  no  time  in  getting 
away. 

"  I  don't  exactly  like  it,"  said  one  of  the  younger  men. 
"  It  looks  to  me  very  much  as  if  he  were  in  some  kind  of  a 
scrape,  and  not  only  glad  of  the  opportunity  to  go,  but 
anxious  to  be  quick  about  it.  I  am  not  sure  that  we  were 
wise  to  clinch  the  business  so  promptly." 

"  I  do  not  think  you  need  be  uneasy,"  replied  the  head  of 
the  firm.  "  I  have  been  watching  that  young  man  more 
carefully  than  he  knows,  for  some  time,  and  I  have  entire 
confidence  in  his  integrity,  which,  in  this  case,  is  really  the 
chief  requisite.  He  will  have  plenty  of  intelligent  help 
about  the  details  of  the  business,  and  as  for  his  eagerness 
to  get  away,  most  young  fellows  would  be  glad  enough  of 
the  chance,  danger  and  all.  And  if  he  is  in  any  sort  of  a 
scrape,  it's  probably  some  fuss  with  a  girl — he's  a  good- 


WA  YS  AND  MEANS.  337 

looking  youngster,  very — and  that  is  no  earthly  concern  of 
ours." 

And  so,  in  an  hour's  time,  it  was  settled,  and  Neil  Dun- 
can, instead  of  trying  to  rewrite  his  letter,  added  a  post- 
script, stating  briefly  that  he  had  just  accepted  a  business- 
commission  which  would  oblige  him  to  sail  for  India  the 
following  Saturday,  sealed  the  letter,  and  posted  it,  without 
rereading  it,  for  he  was  afraid  that,  should  he  read  it  again, 
he  would  destroy  it,  and  make  the  vain  and  hopeless 
attempt  to  write  something  more  to  his  mind. 

Muriel  had  meant  to  write  to  him  on  Monday  ;  to  tell  him 
of  the  growing  happiness  in  her  heart,  the  growing  certainty 
that  she  loved  him  ;  but  she  had  the  feeling  which  some- 
times comes  in  a  morning  dream,  that  if  she  spoke  the 
dream  might  vanish. 

"  I  will  wait  till  to-morrow,"  she  whispered  to  herself, 
"  and  perhaps  I  shall  be  even  surer,  then." 

She  had  spoken  to  no  one  but  Aunt  Sally,  and  the  state 
of  beaming  delight  which  Miss  Bowne  could  not  conceal, 
while  it  drew  attention  to  her,  aroused  no  suspicion  as  to  its 
cause,  for  no  one  knew  any  thing  of  Neil  Duncan's  visit. 

His  letter  came  to  Muriel  the  next  evening,  just  as  the 
family  was  going  to  tea.  She  had  seen  his  writing  before, 
and  knew  it  at  once,  so  she  put  the  letter  in  her  pocket, 
and,  before  the  long  summer  twilight  had  quite  faded,  she 
managed  to  escape  alone  to  the  bench  among  the  hazel- 
bushes,  for  she  wished  to  read  it  there.  And  there,  an  hour 
later,  Aunt  Sally  found  her.  It  was  nearly  dark,  and  the 
dew  was  heavy  on  the  grass,  but  Muriel  had  no  wrap,  and 
was  shivering  in  her  thin  summer  dress.  Aunt  Sally  was 
indignant,  and  was  about  to  give  her  indignation  words, 
when  something  in  Muriel's  attitude  and  her  perfect  silence 
changed  the  words  into  : 

"  My  child,  what  is  the  matter  ?  " 


338  WAYS  AND  MEANS. 

"  I  don't  know — I  don't  understand,"  she  answered,  in 
dreamy,  puzzled  tones.  "  There  must  be  some  mistake — 
some  very  strange  mistake." 

"  Come  straight  into  the  house,  before  you  catch  your 
death  of  cold  ;  come  up  to  my  room,  and  tell  me  there," 
said  Aunt  Sally,  putting  her.  arm  about  Muriel,  and  almost 
lifting  her  from  the  bench. 

They  reached  the  house,  and  the  up-stairs  room,  without 
meeting  any  one.  A  lamp  was  burning  on  the  candlestand 
and  Muriel  held  out  the  letter,  saying  : 

"  Please  read  it,  aunty  ;  please  tell  me  what  you  think  it 
means,"  and  Aunt  Sally  took  it,  and  read  : 

"  MY  DEAR  Miss  DOUGLAS. 

"  When  I  saw  you  yesterday,  I  was  under  a  delusion, 
which  I  can  not  possibly  explain,  but  the  knowledge  of  which 
makes  me  deeply  thankful  that  you  could  not  give  me  the 
answer  for  which  I  then  wished.  I  ask  you  now  to  forget 
all  that  I  said,  and  to  be  again  the  friend  whom  I  value, 
permitting  me  to  be  always  your  friend. 

"  NEIL  DUNCAN. 

"  I  sail  for  India  on  Saturday  next,  by  request  of  the  firm 
in  whose  employ  I  am,  and  on  their  business.  I  cannot  tell 
when  I  shall  return. 

"  God  bless  and  keep  you." 

The  last  line  was  added  in  a  hurried  scrawl,  different  from 
the  neat  writing  of  the  rest  of  the  note,  and  was  blotted  by 
the  envelope. 

Aunt  Sally  dropped  into  the  nearest  chair,  as  soon  as  she 
had  finished  reading  this  extraordinary  document,  and  for 
once  could  find  no  adequate  words  in  which  to  clothe  her 
thoughts.  But  Muriel's  beseeching,  questioning  look  made 
her  feel  that  she  must  say  something,  so  she  gasped  oat : 

"  Of  course  there  is  a  mistake.     Somebody  has  told  him 


IV A  YS  AND  JIEANS.  339 

some  extraordinary  thing.  It  will  all  be  set  right  before  he 
goes  away,  and  then  may  be  he  will  not  go  at  all.  You 
hadn't  written  to  him  since  you  saw  him,  had  you,  dear?" 

"  No  ;  I  was  waiting  till  to-morrow,"  replied  Muriel,  with 
whom  utter  perplexity  seemed,  as  yet,  to  preclude  any 
deeper  feeling.  "  I  meant  to  write  to-morrow,  but  I  can 
not  now  ;  I  must  wait,  now,  until  he  tells  me  what  he  means. 
I  don't  understand." 

"  Well,  we  will  sleep  on  it,  and  see  if  we  can  think  of  a 
way  out  in  the  morning — things  always  seem  clearer  then," 
said  Aunt  Sally,  with  assumed  cheerfulness  ;  and  she  helped 
Muriel,  who  did  not  seem  to  think  of  resisting,  to  undress, 
and  tucked  her  up  in  bed,  without  any  more  words.  But 
when  she  went  to  take  away  the  lamp,  Muriel  said  gently  : 

"  Please  leave  me  the  light,  aunty ;  and  please  shut  the 
door  between  our  rooms." 

Aunt  Sally  complied  with  these  requests,  and  then  nerved 
herself  to  go  down  to  the  parlor,  intent  on  averting  remark 
or  suspicion. 

She  was  questioned  at  once,  as  she  expected  to  be,  as  to 
where  Muriel  was,  and  she  replied  promptly  : 

"  The  child  didn't  seem  well.  I'm  afraid  she  has  caught 
cold,  and  I  made  her  come  up  stairs  and  go  to  bed." 

There  was  nothing  out  of  the  common  in  this,  and  while 
they  expressed  regrets,  they  asked  no  more  questions,  and 
Aunt  Sally  silently  prayed  to  be  forgiven  for  the  untruth 
which  she  felt  that  she  had  told,  although  all  she  said  had 
been  strictly  true.  It  was  difficult  for  her  to  join  in  the 
talk  while  she  was  racking  her  brain  for  a  reason  for  Neil 
Duncan's  extraordinary  conduct,  and  she  was  thankful  when 
the  circle  broke  up  for  the  night.  But  something  Jack 
Osborne  was  saying  to  Rose,  as  they  stood  at  the  window 
looking  out  at  the  moonlight,  arrested  her  attention,  and 
made  her  stop  to  question  him. 


34°  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

"  It's  the  most  astonishing  thing,  Rosamundi,"  he  said, 
"  how  people  manage  to  get  things  twisted  !  I  met  two  or 
three  people  in  Boston  to-day,  who  insisted  that  Miss  Muriel 
Douglas  had  lost  every  cent  of  her  money  through  the  ex- 
plosion of  that  stock  company  which  went  up  just  about 
when  the  bank  did.  And  even  when  I  mentioned,  as  a 
suggestion  that  I  might  possibly  know  what  I  was  talking 
about,  that  both  the  Misses  Douglas  were  visiting  at  my 
summer  residence — I  always  call  Dovedale  that,  it  sounds 
so  well — I  don't  think  they  quite  believed  me  !  " 

"  Were  any  of  them  people  I  know  ? "  asked  Aunt  Sally, 
with  what  struck  Jack  as  singular  interest  in  the  matter. 

"  No,  ma'am,"  he  replied  ;  "  but  if  there's  any  thing  you'd 
like  me  to  do  to  them  for  you,  I  shall  be  most  happy  ! " 

"  I'll  let  you  know  if  I  think  of  any  thing  ! "  she  said. 
"  When  does  that  train  leave  that  you  took  this  morning  ? 
At  half-past  eight  ? " 

"  It  leaves  the  Dovedale  station  at  that  time  ;  do  be  more 
accurate,  Aunt  Sally  !  " 

"  I'll  be  accurate  enough  in  the  morning,  if  you'll  be  ready 
to  drive  me  to  that  train  ;  I've  got  to  go  to  Boston,  to-mor- 
row, on  business." 

"  Oh,  Aunty  !  "  said  Rose,  "  isn't  it  any  thing  one  of  us 
can  attend  to  for  you  ;  it's  going  to  be  so  warm  to-morrow." 

"  Thank  you,  my  dear,  but  it's  something  that  I  must  do 
myself.  Will  you  take  me  to  the  train,  Jack  ?  " 

"  Certainly  I  will,  if  you  must  go,  Aunt  Sally;  but  I  wish 
your  business  would  keep  for  cooler  weather." 

"  So  do  I,  but  it  won't.     Good-night." 

"  I  wouldn't  say  any  thing  more  to  her  about  it,  if  I  were 
you,  Jack,"  said  Rose.  "  I  thought  she  seemed  afraid  we 
would  question  her." 

"  I  will  talk  about  the  weather  all  the  way  to  the  station. 
But  I  wish  she'd  tell,  and  let  us  help  her." 


ir.i  YS  AND  MEANS.  34 1 

When  Miss  Bowne  reached  Boston,  she  went  straight  to 
the  house  where  Neil  Duncan  was  employed  and  asked  to 
see  him.  She  happened  to  speak  to  a  civil  clerk,  and  so 
was  told  that  he  was  about  to  go  to  India  for  the  firm,  that 
he  was  busy  with  his  preparations,  and  would  not  be  at  the 
office  any  more.  She  thanked  her  informant,  and  turned 
away  ;  muttering  to  herself, 

"  There's  one  chance  in  ten,  and  I'll  take  it  !  " 

She  went  next  to  his  lodgings,  congratulating  herself  that 
she  knew  the  street  and  number.  Yes,  he  was  in,  the  ser- 
vant said,  but  very  busy  packing,  and  she  didn't  think 

"  You  go  tell  him  that  a  lady — an  old  lady — is  waiting  to 
see  him,  and  will  wait  till  he  has  time  to  see  her  !  " 

And  Aunt  Sally  entered  the  stuffy  little  parlor  and  sat 
down  on  the  hard-hearted  hair-cloth  sofa.  She  had  not  long 
to  wait.  He  came  down  at  once,  with  a  face  so  pale  and 
desperate  that  her  wrath  entirely  subsided. 

"  Miss  Bowne  !  "  he  exclaimed  :  "  What — has  any  thing 
happened  ?  Is  any  thing  the  matter  ?  " 

"  Yes,  a  good  deal  is  the  matter  !  "  she  replied,  sternly. 
"  You  go  to  a  girl  who  is  worth  a  dozen  of  you,  and  tell  her 
you  love  her,  as  you'd  have  told  her  weeks  ago?  if  you  could 
have  forgotten  about  yourself,  and  your  pride,  and  your 
poverty,  and  you  only  condescend  to  do  it  now,  because 
you  think  she's  lost  all  her  money  and  you  needn't  step  on 
your  precious  pride  to  come  to  her.  And  then,  when  you 
find  you've  been  mistaken,  and  she  hasn't  lost  her  money, 
you  write  a  cowardly  note,  that  leaves  her  no  choice  in  the 
matter,  and  pack  your  trunk  and  go  to  India  !  " 

"  She  had  not  accepted  me,"  he  said,  confusedly.  "  She 
asked  me  to  wait  for  her  answer." 

"  And  do  you  suppose  she'd  have  asked  you  to  wait  if 
she'd  meant  to  refuse  you  ?  That's  a  poor  come-off  !  And 
now  do  you  look  at  yourself  as  if  you  were  somebody  else, 


342  WA  YS  AND  MEANS. 

and  see  if  the  whole  sum  and  substance  of  the  matter  isn't 
that  you're  afraid  of  what  people  will  say  about  you.  She 
didn't  know  I  was  coming  to  you  ;  she'll  not  die  of  it,  if  you 
go  off  and  leave  her  this  way  ;  she  has  too  much  sense  for 
that !  But  if  you  really  cared  for  her  as  you  professed  to 
care,  you  wouldn't  give  her  a  five  minutes'  heart-ache.  You 
musn't  think  you'll  get  away  from  yourself  by  going  to 
India." 

"  It  is  true  !  "  he  said,  despairingly.  "  It  was  for  myself 
that  I  was  afraid  !  And  if  she  cares  for  me,  what  does  all 
the  rest  of  the  world  matter  ?  But  I  am  pledged  to  go.  I 
can  not  draw  back  now.  Oh,  what  shall  I  do  ?" 

"  Come  back  with  me,  and  beg  her  pardon,  and  make 
her  understand  why  you  wrote  that  note,  and  see  if  she'll 
give  you  a  chance  to  prove  whether  you  love  her  or  not.  And 
it  will  not  matter  if  you  go  to  India  for  a  year,  or  two,  or 
three  years.  You're  both  of  you  young  enough,  dear 
knows  ! " 

He  went.  Aunt'  Sally's  attack  had  swept  away  all  his 
defenses,  and  made  him  see  the  coward's  part  he  had  been 
playing.  And  as  they  were  on  their  way  to  the  station  that 
afternoon  a  brilliant  piece  of  strategy  occurred  to  the  suc- 
cessful general.  She  had  slipped  a  note  under  Muriel's 
door  that  morning  in  which  she  had  said  : 

"  You  come  to  meet  the  afternoon  train  by  yourself,  my 
dear,  in  the  phaeton,  but  be  sure  you  take  the  old  horse  !  " 

And  now  she  exclaimed  : 

"  See  here.  Muriel  was  to  meet  me  this  afternoon  with 
the  phaeton,  but  you  can  just  tell  her  that  I  made  up  my 
mind  to  go  and  spend  the  night  with  Miss  Post,  and  she 
can  come  to  the  same  train,  to-morrow." 

So  when  Neil  Duncan  sailed  for  India,  the  next  Saturday, 
to  be  gone  a  year,  it  was  with  hopes  which  would  make 
all  labor  seem  light  to  him. 


IV A  YS  AND  MEANS.  343 

And  while  Muriel  waited  for  the  year  to  go  by,  she  made 
each  day  of  waiting  a  day  of  blessing,  and  her  life  grew 
daily  fuller  of  activities  for  neglected  and  down-trodden 
bodies  and  souls.  Pleasant  things  came  to  cheer  her  on 
her  way  ;  Miss  Post's  restored  sight,  the  warm  affection  of 
Lizzie  Boyce,  which  would  always  act  as  a  restraining 
power,  over  that  volatile  young  person  ;  the  steady  growth 
in  usefulness  and  power  for  good  of  her  "  station"  in  the 
warehouse,  where,  month  by  month,  additions  were  made  to 
the  attractions  of  the  place,  and  almost  as  frequently,  to  its 
capacity  for  holding  those  who  were  attracted. 

And  while  she  prayed  that  her  earthly  hopes  might  be 
fulfilled,  it  was  no  importunate  prayer.  She  began  to  see 
how  often  the  crushed  hopes  of  one  heart  yield  the  wine  of 
life  for  many  others,  and  she  stood  humbly  ready  to  serve, 
in  sorrow  or  in  joy,  the  Master  in  whose  footsteps  she  was 
trying  to  walk. 

THE   END 


1  j 


